


The Science of Raising Chimera

by MelodramaticMrTails



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Alchemy, Chimeras
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-13
Updated: 2017-04-21
Packaged: 2018-10-18 13:08:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 35,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10617534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelodramaticMrTails/pseuds/MelodramaticMrTails
Summary: Geoff finds out about some strange things going on at the Haywood ranch and takes it upon himself to check it out. He finds more than he bargains for. [a fullmetal alchemist au]





	1. The Cow Says

“Did you hear, another military man went missing up at that Haywood house,” the woman behind the bar murmurs. Geoff is suddenly alert to the conversation. Military people going missing? That sounds like his business. He may not be military anymore but he’s not interested in watching some serial murderer running around such a nice town. Not wanting to look like he’s eavesdropping, Geoff quietly continues sipping his whiskey.

“I wish they would do something about that,” the man she talks to replies disgruntledly. “First it’s military, then it’s innocent civilians.”

“It’s soldiers who keep going missing,” she replies mildly. “They’re not going to send more of their people in after them.”

“You think a soldier could deal with one guy,” he grumbles.

“Don’t think about doing anything stupid,” she says. “Leave him alone and he’ll leave you alone.” Geoff finally turns to them pointedly and they look at him rather rudely. Obviously they’re not too pleased to know he was listening in.

“I think I can help you with this problem,” Geoff offers. She gives him a thoroughly unconvinced look. Fairly, he has been spending every day here drinking basically all day. It’s not like there’s a lot to do in this shit town anyways.

“Can you now?” she replies skeptically.

“I used to be a state alchemist,” Geoff assures her. They glance at each other, obviously not fully believing him. “Trust me on this one.” It’s not like he has a lot of proof, after all, besides being able to skillfully, usually, do alchemy. Besides, what do they care if he puts himself in danger.

“What do you expect to do?” she asks.

“Set your mind at ease, of course,” he says with a lopsided grin. “I’ll just go say hello and make sure this guy isn’t up to anything unsavory, yeah?” Again, they look at one another unsurely. Geoff doubts they’re worried about him, they don’t even know him, but rather are worried he’s going to agitate this weirdo or something.

“I guess,” she murmurs. “That would be nice.”

“See? There won’t be any problems, I promise,” he assures. “What can you tell me about this guy?”

“Well, he moved in a couple months ago on his own. Keeps to himself mostly,” she explains.

“He’s- nice,” the guy adds in. “Never bothers anyone or anything. Always pays.”

“People just- go missing sometimes,” she says worriedly. “Always military so far- but they’re the only ones that go up there.”

“He’s a little- weird,” he murmurs. “Intimidating, really. He’s never like, hurt anyone or started any fights or anything. He’s just quiet- and weird.” This seems like a spot on witch hunt to him. Just because a guy sticks to himself doesn’t mean he’s bad.

“I think he must live there with someone else,” she insists. “He buys strange things sometimes. Dresses and weird- toys. Dog toys but no one ever sees a dog. Stuff like that.”

“Maybe he wears them?” Geoff suggests. He’s not one to shame what a person likes. Or their ‘weird’ toys whatever that means.

“No,” he says. “They’re- small. Like, child sized.” Oh. So either he has a kid, wants a kid, or lost a kid. Geoff isn’t sure which of those he prefers. “Never seen a kid come in or out of that place.”

“And I heard he’s an alchemist,” she says much more quieter as if this should be a secret kept between them. “One day that farmhouse was broken down and bare and the next he’s got a goddamn picket fence with a garden.” Alright, this is definitely a witch hunt. Not everyone is as cool with alchemist as they appear to be- and for good reason, honestly.

“Alright,” Geoff agrees and he nods. “I’ll go have a chat with ‘im.”

“Thank you,” she replies with a rather content sigh, actually. Putting a person’s mind at ease is a good thing.

“And in the meantime,” Geoff hums. “A half priced drink would be-”

“No,” she deadpans.

“Don’t you have any respect for an ex-state alchemist?” he grumbles.

“Not a drunk one,” she replies. He scoffs to himself.

\- x -

Geoff looks down the dirt path leading out of town into the Haywood ranch. It’s the perfect little house, honestly. Two stories sat on a little hill surrounded by a tall, picket white fence with little flowers and bushes growing around it. As Geoff approaches, he realises the fence does not sit straight up and down but rather, seems to tilt outwards like a flower. It’s still too tall to see over but obviously it’s not to keep anything in. Judging by the disguised alchemy circles on the outside of the fence, he’s going to go ahead and say it’s definitely to keep people out. Geoff isn’t totally sure what would happen if he were to try to climb the fence but he’ll assume nothing good.

With that in mind, Geoff decides to go ahead and approach the house like a normal person through the front gate. When he pushes it open, he hears a small click. Instantly, Geoff throws his arm up to defend his face from what most certainly sounds like an explosive trigger. Fortunately, that’s not the case. Slowly, he lowers his arm to look at the mechanism he seems to have triggered; a small tripwire sat on top of an alchemy circle with a line that seems to lead into the house. It’s a warning line. It was such a quiet click, Geoff’s not positive most people would have heard it- military or not.

As he looks up, he spots just the slightest glint from the top middle window of the house. It’s gone quick. Geoff makes his way to the front door. Surely enough, inside of the fence is plenty of nice flower patches, a little vegetable garden, and what is clearly a playground for a child. That being said, it’s made very sturdy and looks a little off to his eye though he can’t put his finger on it. Politely, Geoff knocks on the door. There’s some rustling around for a moment before the door cracks open and a tired face peers out.

“Can I help you?” he asks.

“Some people in town were worried about you,” Geoff explains. “You’re Ryan Haywood, right? I just came to check on you. I’m Geoff Ramsey.” Haywood doesn’t say anything for several long moments. He looks absolutely exhausted, honestly. No wonder people think he looks intimidating. The poor guy is probably just a sad, lonely researcher.

“Are you a state alchemist?” Haywood finally asks. Most people don’t assume that about him. However, if this guy is also an alchemist, perhaps he recognised some of Geoff’s tattoos and from there, well, it’s a short leap.

“Used to be,” Geoff admits. He knows they said it’s military people that keep disappearing but he’s confident enough in his ability to deal with this situation. “Not anymore.”

“Well, I appreciate it but I’m alright,” Haywood assures. “I have work to do.”

“Alchemy work?” Geoff asks, taking a step towards the door. Haywood moves back unsurely. “Perhaps I could lend a hand.”

“I doubt that,” Haywood replies.

“Can I come in?” Geoff asks, ignoring his obvious warning to leave. Haywood hesitates, looking back into his house a bit before slowly opening the door. This is actually fairly surprising. Perhaps he should be more careful than he is.

“For a little bit, I suppose,” Haywood murmurs. “But I really need to get back to work soon.” Maybe he’s just lonely. Geoff wanders in, a bit cautiously, but nothing seems immediately dangerous. In fact, Haywood has quite a nice home. He watches as Haywood closes the door behind him and heads for the little kitchen only to pause and turn back to him again.

“Sorry. Feel free to have a seat,” he says, gesturing to the living room. Geoff goes ahead and heads into the living room to be nosy while he’s left alone. It’s just as nice as the rest of the house seems to be with a great bookcase and lots of little decorations. Most of the books don’t have labels, creating a very neat and pretty bookcase. Geoff picks off one that does, however, have a little alchemy circle on the spine of it. It’s a thin book and he flips through it curiously. They’re nonfunctional alchemy circles. Well, he shouldn’t say that. Most alchemy circles function but these, rather obviously, would create severe rebound effects.

“Tea?” Haywood offers. Geoff looks up from the book to the tray he holds.

“Sure,” he agrees. He has a seat with the little book and Haywood joins him on an opposite seat to pour them each a delicate little cup of tea.

“So, what do you research?” Geoff questions.

“Bio alchemy,” Haywood replies. Geoff internally flinches a little. There are many kinds of bio alchemy, he knows that, but the most known kind is the most infamous. He hopes this doesn’t have anything to do with the ‘kid’ thing.

“You’re not a state alchemist, are you?” Geoff asks. He would have known about that.

“No,” Haywood answers. Geoff holds his tea cup but he doesn’t drink from it. He’s not much of a tea guy anyways and, fairly, he’s not sure how safe it is either even as Ryan quietly sips his own. He seems anxious which, in turn, makes Geoff a little anxious too.

“Why not?” he asks.

“Never had an interest in being a dog,” Haywood says, not even bothering to hide his disdain for them despite knowing Geoff was once one. That being said, he’s not in the wrong. That doesn’t immediately mean he’s been killing soldiers, either.

“Is this all your research then?” Geoff questions, shaking the book he holds.

“No,” Haywood replies. “Alchemy exists outside of the military believe it or not.”

“Fair enough,” Geoff agrees. “Mind me asking why bio alchemy?”

“Why not?” Haywood inquires back.

“I could think of a lot of reasons ‘why not’,” Geoff assures. “People have done some very terrible things with bio alchemy.”

“People have done bad things with all kinds of alchemy,” Haywood points out.

“So they have,” Geoff says. He puts his tea, untouched, down on the table in order to flip through this book again. None of the circles are labeled and while Geoff can’t say for sure if they would all rebound, judging by how severely the others certainly would, he wouldn’t take the risk. Haywood taps impatiently.

“I can’t help but notice these don’t look like bio alchemy circles,” Geoff murmurs.

“You said you weren’t a state alchemist anymore?” Haywood says, changing the subject very intentionally. “Why leave?”

“Didn’t,” Geoff answers. “Got kicked out. Couldn’t keep up with my research.”

“Huh,” Haywood answers with mute interest. As Geoff looks down to the book again, Ryan raises his tea cup and Geoff spots the ink on the palm of his hand. Now that is interesting.

“You must be a really dedicated bio alchemist to get a tattoo for it,” Geoff mentions as he examines a few failed circles more closely. These seem to be fire related but not flame. “What’s the tattoos for?”

“Did you know there’s enough material in the human body to make a bomb.”

This would be more threatening if Geoff wasn’t immediately distracted by the sound of a cry. He looks up curiously, trying to tell where it’s coming from but Haywood doesn’t seem to notice. In fact, he notices so little he doesn’t even respond to Geoff’s strange behavior- a clear sign that he notices but is simply ignoring it. The little plea grows louder. Not only is Geoff having trouble telling where it’s coming from, but it doesn’t sound human. It sounds like a calf. He hadn’t seen any animals outside but- bio alchemy has some infamous connections.

“What is that?” Geoff asks.

“What is what?” Haywood replies. The crying grows louder still. Geoff thinks about all those missing men. Then he doesn’t.

“Papa!” the little voice cries. “Peanut butter cups!” Immediately, Haywood drops his intimidating act without an ounce of hesitation. Then he drops his tea cup. Without warning, he bolts out of the room and it takes Geoff a moment to realise what’s going on. He sets his book down to swiftly hurry after him through the little house as Haywood rapidly searches for the source of the cries. Hurriedly, he darts down to the end of the hall and back again, pushing Geoff out of the way hard to move him quicker.

“Papa!” It becomes obvious rather quickly, it’s coming from a vent. Haywood wastes no time, whipping out a marker from his pocket and immediately drawing an alchemy circle on the ceiling to rip a hole through both the wall and the vent. The small child lets out a startled yelp when she falls out and safely into his arms. Haywood lets out a sigh of relief.

“Baby, what were you doing?” he asks softly. This is a totally different Haywood. Geoff glances up at the hole in the vent curiously.

“‘m sorry, papa,” she says and she lets out a little ‘moo’. A jolt goes down Geoff’s spine. He didn’t. “I wanted to see. I never get to see anyone.” She clings to him tightly and Haywood checks her over to make sure she’s alright. Aside from some dust, she seems to be fine. For a chimera anyways.

“Haywood,” Geoff grounds out from between his teeth. “Did you-” Before he even finishes, Haywood gives him the dirtiest, most sour glare Geoff has ever seen.

“Don’t,” he says firmly. Now that is most certainly a threat. She peers over his shoulder to look at Geoff curiously and he tries not to lurch back. It’s not altogether obvious immediately that she’s a chimera from a first glance alone but looking closely, it’s unnerving. She has somewhat whale-eyed, solid black eyes that are much more eerie than Geoff wants to admit. Under her hair and skewed bandana, he can see her fluffy ears, too, much bigger and certainly not human shaped. Neither is her tail, flicking happily back and forth.

“H-hello,” she says smalley. Geoff’s poor heart breaks. “My name’s Edgar. I’m, um, mm-” She looks at her fingers for a moment, thinking very hard and concentrating on them. “This,” she says as she holds up her fingers for him excitedly.

“H-hi Edgar,” Geoff replies. “I’m Geoff. I, uh, I don’t have enough fingers for how old I am.” He laughs awkwardly and gives her a little wave. Her face lights up when she see the tattoo on his palm.

“Oh! You’re an al-chem-ist too!” Edgar says excitedly and she wriggles in Haywood’s arms.

“Y-yeah,” Geoff agrees.

“Will you go and change your clothes, Edgar?” Haywood asks gently. “You’re all dusty now. Then we can have some tea, okay?”

“Yeah!” she says. “I can do that!” He sets her down gently and she dusts herself off a bit before hurriedly galloping down the hall. This all makes a lot of sense all of a sudden. If people from the military have showed up here knowing about Edgar, knowing what she is, then he understand why they ‘disappeared’. Haywood clenches his jaw visibly.

“Is she- yours?” Geoff asks.

“Yes,” Haywood answers stiffly.

“What happened?” he asks.

“A mistake,” Haywood says. “From someone who won’t make that mistake again.”

“You became a bio alchemist because of her, didn’t you?” he asks.

“I did,” Haywood replies. “Ramsey, if you intend on telling anyone about this, you won’t be leaving here. Better state alchemist than you have tried to take her away.”

“No,” Geoff breathes. “God no.” Edgar comes running back down the hall, no longer covered in dust and in a matching pink dress and scarf to hide her tail and ears.

“Look Mr. Geoff!” she says eagerly. “This is my tea party dress!” Edgar blinks at him curiously. She returns to her dad’s side, clinging to his leg a little. “Ah, why is Mr. Geoff crying Papa?” Haywood is obviously surprised by this and he looks back at Geoff curiously to find him, sure enough, tearing up.

“I- honestly don’t know, Edgar,” Haywood tells her as he picks her up again. He’s bemused if anything.

“It’s okay Mr. Geoff,” Edgar insists. “You don’t have to cry. We can have some tea, okay?” Geoff nods.

“I’d love some tea, Edgar,” he agrees. “I’m afraid I’m not properly dressed for such a fancy occasion.”

“Oh! I got a bow for you! It’ll match Papa’s tie! I’ll go get it!” And again, Edgar squirms out of Haywood’s arms to gallop off. Haywood looks at Geoff quietly, then back down the hall again, before heading towards the living room.

“Don’t test me Ramsey,” he says. “I’ll get you before you get her. Every time.”

He really doesn’t need to worry about that.


	2. Fixed Limitations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Geoff reads Edgar a nap time story [?]. Ray meets his maker. Mica has a birthday.

Ryan’s research is- expansive. Geoff hasn’t even made it through a small fraction of it and there’s still so much more. In the military, he had access to as much research as he wanted but he never really had time for it or the patience for that matter. Absolutely none of Ryan’s research is coded. It’s very strange to Geoff. Anyone could come in and help themselves- and then probably die horribly but still.

“Mr. Geoff,” Edgar murmurs tiredly as she comes to join him on the couch with her stuffed cow and a book. “Will you read to me, again?” Much like her father, Edgar is a stunning alchemist herself. At such a young age, she’s already more than capable of performing very advanced feats of alchemy. That being said, she mostly just uses it to make flowers in the yard to promptly eat. Also much like her father, she favors bio alchemy. She seems to have been taught that her alchemy is an inherent ability, not a skill, and that she may use it for what she wants, when she wants.

Edgar is not his kid and therefore Geoff can’t really say anything about it, but this isn’t exactly the best mindset for anyone to have for alchemy. Alchemy is powerful and dangerous- Edgar’s existence as a chimera should be proof enough of that.

Still, it’s not really surprising that she likes to be read her father’s research before a nap.

“Does your papa ever read to you, Edgar?” Geoff asks softly. Whenever he comes over, Ryan remains cooped up in his study, leaving Edgar with free roam of the house with Geoff. While this could be seen as Ryan trusting him with his daughter, it’s certainly not. All Edgar needs to do is shout and Ryan will come tearing through the house like a mad bull. She has a ‘safety’ word, her most hated food ‘peanut butter cups’, and she is not afraid to use it. Geoff is certain Ryan would rip the world apart to get to her if he had to.

A girl Edgar’s age, Geoff would think she’d use this word often just to get her father’s attention but that’s not the case. He’s seen her trip and scrap herself, surely the end of the world for a little girl, but instead of calling for her dad she just picked herself back up, made herself a bandaid, and continued on her way. She’s very independent- perhaps a necessity of her ‘busy’ father.

“Yeah!” Edgar replies enthusiastically. “Papa reads to me all the time! He reads his research to me while he’s working and lets me help him with his alchemy!” The very idea gives Geoff the shivers. As much as Ryan seems to dare Geoff to accuse him of turning his own daughter into a chimera, he still has his concerns. He most certainly won’t bring it up without hard proof though. Geoff’s also sure Ryan would rip him apart.

“Are you by yourself a lot, Edgar?” Geoff asks.

“Hm? Oh no. Papa almost never lets me out of his sight! When you come over he goes and hides in his lab though ‘cause he doesn’t like you much,” she explains, cheerfully toying with her plush. Geoff visibly deflates a little. Oh. Of course. Her cute dad hates him. That figures.

“Your papa doesn’t like me, Edgar?” Geoff murmurs.

“Not really!” Edgar answers. “He says a dog that’s been trained to bite will never know how not to!” Ryan doesn’t bother hiding the fact that he doesn’t care for the military, and specifically state alchemist, at all.

“Do you believe that, Edgar?” he asks with a frown.

“Yeah!” she replies without hesitation. “Papa’s really smart! He says I should form my own opinions and that he is really ‘bias’, whatev’r that means, but those alchemy dogs are really mean! I’ve seen them! They try to take me ‘n papa away and try to take papa’s research ‘n try to hurt me! But papa always takes care of it!” This sends a shiver down Geoff’s spine for a similar, yet very different reason. Oh, Ryan ‘takes care’ of them alright. He is a stunningly powerful alchemist. That alone would draw recruiters to talk to him. Geoff’s been officially trained by the state and he’s not even sure he’d stand a chance against Ryan in a fight. Then again, Ryan has a lot more to lose, too.

“Will you read to me now, Mr. Geoff?” Edgar asks again, looking up at him with her weird little eyes and holding up the book she’s chosen. Geoff takes it with a sigh and nods.

“Of course,” he agrees with a little smile. Edgar happily tucks into her plush, nearly as big as she is, and cozies into the couch for nap time. Geoff settles back as well and pops the book open.

“March 2003 by Vagabond. Redux by Ryan Haywood, 2010,” he reads. She likes hearing every bit of it.

“Observable alchemic truth; to gain something, something of equal value must be lost. This is the law of equivalent exchange. Observable thermodynamic truth; energy can never be created or destroyed. This is the law of conservation of mass. Observable physics truth; for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is Newton’s third law of motion.” He peeks to see if she’s asleep yet and she peeks back so he continues.

“In alchemy, it is said that due to the observable truth of the law of equivalent exchange, human transmutation- is impossible,” Geoff hesitates. None of these books have labels, he never knows what they’re about until he starts reading. This is- not something he expected. “The FAKEs have theorized this to be- untrue.” What _is_ this?

“Why’d you stop Mr. Geoff?” Edgar asks with a frown. Geoff swallows nervously.

“Wouldn’t you rather read something else, Edgar?” he asks.

“Aw, but I want to hear about human transmutation,” she insists. Christ, is this the stuff Ryan researches? He continues for now, she’s obviously already knows about some of this.

“A human soul is priceless therefore, it weighs nothing on a scale. This nothing, however, is not equal to an empty scale otherwise we would be able to transmute humans out of thin air. The only thing equal to this nothing is another nothing; another human soul.” This is absolutely horrifying. “This is where philosopher stones come into play. Human transmutation has been observed to be successful when one of these stones is used. Theoretically, a philosopher’s stone can be made with a single soul which in turn can be used to make a single homunculus. Homunculus created this way are unsustainable.” What the absolute fuck.

“The energy required to perform human transmutation is so great that a single philosopher’s stone with a single soul would create catastrophic failure for both the performer and the homunculus. A perfect human transmutation needs three things-”

“Two philosopher’s stones and a conduct, right?” Edgar says. Geoff is rightfully startled. “One to act as the homunculus’ soul, one to pay the energy toll, and the conduct to, um, ah, I forgot.” He awkwardly continues to read.

“One philosopher’s stone to pay the law of equivalent exchange, one philosopher’s stone to pay the law of conservation, and a conduit to pay the third law of motion. The first two are simple. A soul for a soul and energy for an action. The second stone may be forgone at a pricey, sometimes deadly, cost but forgone all the same. The first is a necessity. Without a soul for the homunculus, they will fail to be anything more than a shell. Likewise, a conduit is required for a homunculus to be sustainable. This conduit is a connection between the homunculus and the person performing the transmutation and allows an inward and outward flow of alchemic energy between the two. Without this, a homunculus becomes a ‘closed’ system and gradually devours its own philosopher’s stone.

“A conduit can be many things; sin, virtue, love, hate, desperation. It is important to note that what conduit is used greatly determines how the homunculus will form. Likewise, if a homunculus is created with a multi-soul philosopher’s stone, then the chances that it will refuse a conduit greatly increases. Often times, these homunculus will instead ‘mirror’ their conduits to- undesired effects.

“This is called the Ouroboros Effect.”

\- x -

“Right this way, Ray,” a scientist says. Ray has all but forgotten their names by now. It doesn’t matter much anymore especially to him. They’ll be dead and he’ll be dead and it’s a running bet to see who’ll be first. He’s bet on himself, of course. Ray follows him to his leisure, his hands shackled together in such a way that he couldn’t perform alchemy even if he wanted to. They’re worried he would escape otherwise.

He would.

“Now, you do this and you’re free to go, remember?” the scientist says. Ray snorts. Yeah, free to go to an empty grave. If they even give him that much. They use him for his alchemic talent, not his brain. He’d been an incredible state alchemist for two years until they saw his talent going to waste and introduced him to their ‘research’ centre instead. Then they realised that he was more of a risk than an asset and instead he got to be a prisoner.

Ray supposes all dogs get put down eventually.

He’s lead to a secure, sterile place for their latest test; human transmutation. They act like he doesn’t know the price of something like this, as if he doesn’t know they’re lying through their teeth at him. Of course, they don’t have to worry about letting him go because they don’t expect him to survive. Ray doesn’t expect to survive, either. That being said, he’s going to make sure everyone here comes with him.

“This should be everything you need,” the scientist explains as someone else frees his hands. Several more scientists stand at a safe distance behind thick glass to watch and a handful of guards stand in the room to make sure Ray doesn’t try anything funny. “Good luck, Ray.” They’ll need it.

Ray rubs his hands and his wrists, sore from being bound together to tightly for so long. There’s not a lot here; instructions, the ingredients for a human down to the perfect scale, something to draw his circles with, and a philosopher’s stone. Ray only halfheartedly looks at the sheets of paper he’s been left with and when he picks up the stone, every guard in the room points their gun at him. He could create havoc with this thing but he’d still be only human. No, he’s going to make them a monster.

Carefully, Ray takes his chalk and he begins to draw. It is anger. It is pain. It is complete and utter disregard for himself and the people around him. Whatever this thing is, whatever he makes, he’s going to make sure it’s deadly. They all watch as he draws, making no complaints when he deviates from their diagram. After all, he is the master alchemist here.

Then Ray looks at the stone. They expect him to use this to perform his amazing feat. He doesn’t need it. Instead, he places it with the rest of the raw materials in the middle of his circle and he stands back as the scientists murmur to one another curiously. Ray looks at them. He will be free first.

There is no god left for him to pray to, no one left to say goodbye to, so he just gets it over with. With nothing but pure spite in his heart, Ray activates his circle. He watches as it flashes to life, burning away energy in massive quantities as this _thing_ is created. Then he blacks out.

A gate.

Ray stares at it. What an ugly thing.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Truth says. Ray glances at them, then back again. What an ugly thing. “Are you going to use the stone? It’s not too late you know.”

“For what?” Ray asks back, never taking his eyes off the gate. What an ugly thing.

“To save yourself,” they say.

“And if I don’t?” Ray asks. He sees them smile without ever looking at them.

“Then she will.”

Something grabs him. The pain he feels is do instantaneous, so severe, he is stunned. He can’t even think of moving as he’s jerked into the gate all at once and swallowed whole. It hurts too bad to react. Hurts his brain, his body, his very soul. Whatever happens, happens too fast and too _much_ for him to comprehend properly. Then it’s gone. Ray stares at the gate. What an ugly thing. He breathes deep.

“Can I go now?” Ray asks.

“Of course, Ray,” Truth replies.

All Ray hears is himself- screaming. There’s so much blood. It hurts, it honestly and truly hurts, but it is not the worst pain he’s ever felt. He tries to stifle it, to collect himself at least long enough to do something to protect himself. Before he didn’t care. Before he was ready to die, to embrace death, but now he’s seen. There is something out there. He can’t remember what it is or where it is or why he wants it but it’s out there and he’s got to survive to get to it.

“He did it.”

“I can’t believe he really did it.”

There’s too much blood. There’s nowhere for Ray to draw, even in his own blood.

“Do you know where you are? Do you know _what_ you are? Can you even speak?”

Ray looks up, through his eye that isn’t profusely bleeding, and the homunculus looks back. His heart nearly stops. A scientist approaches them cautiously but they won’t look away from Ray. They seem to find him peculiar for some reason or pitiful perhaps. As the scientist reaches out to touch them, they react immediately and viciously, grabbing the man around his neck hard with one hand. The guards lurch to action.

“C-calm down,” the scientist says easily. “She doesn’t know what she’s doing. Now please, just put me down. It’s alright. I’m going to help you, okay?” The homunculus finally breaks eye contact with Ray to look at the scientist instead. Effortlessly, they throw him against the glass, shattering it with the sheer force of it and killing him instantly. The scientists on the other side watch on in horror.

“Should I kill them?” the homunculus questions curiously, looking down to Ray again, bathed in his own blood.

“I’d do it myself but I just realised I’m missing an arm now,” Ray murmurs in reply. They grin. “I really hate these people.”

All Ray hears are other people screaming.

\- x -

“That being said, there are other ‘necessities’ to creating a self sufficient, sustainable homunculus. Alchemic skill, of course. An unskilled alchemist can not hope to create a proper homunculus. The proper circles which, even now, can’t be properly pinned down due to muddled research. Materials; the basic necessities for what makes up a human body. Lastly there is a final piece to create a so called ‘perfect’ homunculus that no one seems to know or understand yet, we simply refer to it as ‘luck’.

“Human transmutation is a dangerous subject of study, however, FAKE scientists are certain that it is, without a question, the most efficient use of alchemic energy if done perfectly. Which brings us to soul binding.”

Edgar’s little snores snap Geoff out of the murmured reading he was doing. He looks at her peacefully sleeping away before looking back to the thick book he’s reading from. There’s a lot of stuff here. Why does Ryan have this? Why would he research such a thing? Geoff closes the book quickly but quietly. He has to- he has to get rid of this.

“Can I have that back, now?” Ryan asks flatly, his tone not exactly requesting it. Geoff jumps a little before looking at the book then back to Ryan. He swallows nervously.

“Have you-?” he begins.

“Of course not,” Ryan replies, snatching the book from him. “This is theoretic research only. No one’s made a homunculus before.”

“R-right,” Geoff murmurs. “That- why do you just _have_ that? Anyone could find it. Anyone could _try_ it.”

“Try what?” Ryan snaps back in hushed tones. “Making a philosopher’s stone then making a homunculus? Not just anyone can perform alchemy, Ramsey. Even more so, not just any alchemist can make a philosopher’s stone and not just any who can will. Then you’re talking about those who want to use it to make homunculi? You’re talking about a very, _very_ slim percentage of people. So if you keep your _mouth shut_ and I keep my mouth shut, then what are you worried about?”

“A lot of things!” Geoff snaps back. He quickly quiets himself with Edgar huffs irritably in her sleep. “This is dangerous research, Ryan. This should be-”

“What, in the hands of the state?” Ryan sneers back.

“Destroyed, preferably,” Geoff answers sharply.

“No,” Ryan snorts a laugh. He takes his book and turns to return to his lab.

“Haywood,” Geoff hisses after him but Ryan isn’t listening anymore. He glances down at Edgar again, worriedly sighing to himself. What a mess he’s gotten himself into. What is he supposed to do about this? It’s not like he can tell anyone. Hell, it’s not like that would help anything, anyways.

Maybe Ryan’s right. It already exists and if Ryan has it, someone else probably does, too. Whoever originally wrote it for example; the Vagabond. The best he can hope for is not saying nothing to no one. He’s just got to forget this ever happened.

Geoff thinks about soul binding.

\- x -

“M1 C4? Mica? Mica. Mi-ca. My name is Mica. Yeah, I like that. I’m Mica. Hello, I’m Mica.”

“Alright, Mica. That’s your name. Not exactly discreet but I mean, I got one eye and one arm now. I’m not exactly one to judge. Let’s get out of here, alright Mica?”

“Sure! Can I burn it down?”

“Shit yeah. Fuck this place.”

“Aw yeah.”


	3. Human Advancement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dead wife trope, reimagined.

Geoff sweats nervously as Ryan stares unwaveringly at him across the table. Edgar sits in her papa’s lap while she practices her alchemy under his watchful eye, assuring she doesn’t accidentally rebound herself in her curious testing of things. Every so often she’ll tug on him to put the table back to normal so she can try something else.

“You want to perform human transmutation,” Ryan says flatly. “On your dead wife who’s been dead- two years?”

“Well, not exactly,” Geoff murmurs.

“Right,” Ryan corrects. “You want to make a vessel then fill it with your memories of your dead wife then soul binding a random soul to it hoping it’ll be like your wife. That’s _much_ better.” Geoff doesn’t say anything for a moment. He already knows it sounds really, really dumb but if there’s even the slightest chance, he has to take it.

“She doesn’t have to be my wife,” Geoff says quietly. “She’d hate me after doing something like this anyways.”

“What are you getting out of this?” Ryan asks. “You understand this isn’t just something you can fool around with, right? This very well could kill you- even if it _doesn’t_ work which, honestly, it probably won’t. You can’t just fish through the gate for a soul and expect to find something, Ramsey.”

“I’m aware,” Geoff answers flatly. “I know I can’t bring her back. It just- it wasn’t fair, Ryan.”

“Death is never fair,” Ryan responds sourly. Edgar is unbothered by this conversation.

“No- that’s not what I meant,” Geoff urges. “I got her killed. It was my fault. I- while we were working for the military, I found a philosopher’s stone. I was naive. I didn’t think the military knew about them, yet. I sent it to her on the battlefield and had her get rid of it. Someone must’ve come after her for it.”

“But you don’t know,” Ryan says blandly.

“No,” Geoff admits. “No one knows how she died. No one could find her body.”

“You don’t even know if she _is_ dead,” Ryan scoffs.

“No,” Geoff admits, even softer this time. Ryan doesn’t say anything for a long time, just staring at Geoff intense with a flat look on his face. Of course it’s dumb. If course it’s the worst idea in the world. He’s just expected to leave his wife dead when there’s even the slimmest chance he could help her?

“It won’t be her,” Ryan says. “You know it won’t be. It’ll be someone else’s soul in an artificial body with your biased memories. What are you expecting from doing something like this?”

“I just- Even if just a part of her, even if it’s just some hazy memories, can live on then I’m okay with the consequences whatever they may be,” Geoff assures. This isn’t a decision he’s come to lightly. His wife would never forgive him for doing something like this, he knows that. It isn’t about him, though. “If she can exist again in _any_ way, that’s a fair exchange to me.”

“You understand this is grief, right?” Ryan asks. “Grief and guilt? Are you going to regret this tomorrow? Next week?”

“ _No_ ,” Geoff answers without hesitation.

“Twenty years from now?” Ryan asks. Geoff swallows nervously. Twenty years of possibly being absolutely loathed by his alive wife.

“I’ll never regret it,” he promises.

“And if she suffers?” Ryan asks. Geoff freezes. “If it hurts her to just be ‘alive’? If it hurts her to see you again? Or to see you dead? If she’s thirty going on two hundred in a body that never decays, alone, and she knows that if she dies she’ll remember who she really was?”

Geoff doesn’t say anything.

Edgar paps Ryan’s arm softly and he takes a moment to alchemize the table back to normal for her. Is suffering worse than death? Is forgetting? If no one remembers her than what was ever the point? If he forgets her, would that truly be better than taking a risk?

“If you’re sure about this, then fine,” Ryan says. “I’ll make her a vessel and I’ll help you give her memories. I’ll show you how to soul bind but it’ll be your price to pay. Like I said, it may very well kill you and there’s no guarantee it’ll work. I don’t know of anyone who’s just- gone digging in the Gate for a soul before. This is unexplored territory and for good reason.”

“Hey, there’s a first for everything, right?” Geoff says with an awkward, unsure little laugh. Ryan isn’t amused. Geoff isn’t, either.

“It’ll take some time to make a half decent vessel,” Ryan explains. “The specifications on what will bind a soul are- blurry sometimes. Then we’ll have to figure out a way to get her your memories. I’d use this time to really think about whether or not you _really_ want you do this, Ramsey. There’s no going back.”

“That’s the plan,” Geoff agrees quietly. “Thank you, Ryan. I really couldn’t do this without you.”

“No shit.”

\- x -

“There you are, sweetie,” Jack says softly. “Stay still, alright? This won’t hurt.” The little girl squirms anxiously and covers her face but Jack very carefully activates her healing circle anyway and the bent, crooked bone readjusts itself back into place. It’s so effortless and pain free, the little girl doesn’t even seem to have noticed.

“Isn’t that better?” Jack asks. Slowly the girl lowers her hands from her eyes to look at her leg again, letting out a startled gasp when she realises it’s not broken anymore. She’s absolutely amazed.

Out here, Jack doesn’t have to obey the orders of the military. What they don’t know won’t hurt them after all. She’s the one that gets to decide who she gets to heal and no longer is she bound to sit by and watch people suffer. That’s why she decided to take up residency on the ‘battlefield’. It’s not so much that anymore, the actual soldiers have moved on to another part, but Jack has been here for months trying to help people recover. There’s so many of them, it seems impossible that Jack could ever help them all sometimes.

This is what state alchemists are capable of.

Fortunately, with her philosopher’s stone not only can Jack help the people she otherwise wouldn’t be able to help, but many more of them much quicker. The philosopher’s stone allows her to do so much more than she could have ever dreamed to. She’s created new limbs like nothing, healed up massive wounds without altercations, repaired bad healing jobs, and on occasion, even brought people back from the brink of death. Hell, a few times she’s _literally_ brought people back from death.

She isn’t a god, Jack would never be so foolish, just a state alchemist.

“Come on,” Jack urges, gently trying to get the girl to stand. “It’s okay.” The girl flinches, so used to having to walk around in pain all the time that she simply expects it now. It takes her a few steps to realise it doesn’t hurt anymore and when she does, she eagerly gallops around Jack’s tent, giggling happily.

Her husband never wanted her to use the philosopher’s stone. He didn’t understand.

“Alright, come here,” Jack instructs and the girl happily returns to her side again. Jack draws a new circle. “Here, let me fix your shoulder and you’ll be good to go.” Now knowing Jack to help her, the girl has no problem laying herself down on the circle again so Jack can finish up. Someone enters her tent.

“Excuse me, you’ll need to wait outside a moment,” Jack says immediately, turning to look at the group of people. These aren’t patients. She knows these uniforms well. They’re here for her philosopher’s stone.

“Don’t worry, we won’t be long,” one of them assures. Jack swallows nervously as she turns back to the little girl. She hastily fixes her shoulder and the girl moves it curiously, beaming up at Jack when she discovers she’s pain free finally. She’s so young. There’s so many more people here that still need to be helped. No one else will do it if Jack’s gone.

“Go on,” Jack says softly, helping the little girl to her feet. “Go play, alright? You’re okay, now.” The girl looks at her worriedly, then to the group waiting by the exit. Jack smiles at her faintly and she hurriedly rushes out past them. These people, she can help them without the stone, Jack is positive of it. Sure, the stone helps, but it would never work without her own skill in the first place. Her miracle work would just be a little less ‘miracle’.

“Just give us the philosopher’s stone, Mrs. Pattillo,” one of them instructs, holding his hand out as he approaches her.

“I don’t think so,” Jack replies, getting to her feet.

“Then we’ll just have to take it from you, now won’t we?” another says. Jack grins.

“Do you know what I was before I was a doctor?” she asks. The one that approaches her scoffs irritably, taking out his sword in preparation to take the stone from her by force. They’re going to need a lot more than that.

“Who cares,” he growls out. Jack cracks her knuckles.

“Shame,” she replies and she chucks him out of her tent so hard, he takes one of his friends with him. The others immediately jerk into action, suddenly very aware that she’s not going to make this easy for them. She doesn’t want the stone, she doesn’t _need_ it, but what people like this would do with it would be far worse than just killing her. Under no circumstances can she allow them to take it.

One of them charges at her and Jack stops him in his track with a single hand. She has a philosopher’s stone. They don’t stand a chance. He shouts as she shocks him- _hard_. A shock powerful enough to start a heart again, or stop it. As he drops to the ground, the others jolt back a little. They’ve chosen the wrong stone to take.

“Get her,” one of them instructs. “I’ll get him up.” Two of them lunge for her this time. Jack flings a scalpel at one but the other catches her in the side. She responds swiftly, slamming her palm into the back of his neck, electrocuting him as well. By the time she turns back, the first dead one is getting back to his feet and the other yanks the scalpel out of his neck. Jack laughs.

“You already have a philosopher’s stone?” she murmurs. The five of them move to surround her. Jack holds her hand out over the man lying dead at her feet. He explodes with internal pressure, splattering blood and organs all over the inside of her tent. Her attackers jerk back in surprise and horror. They won’t be bringing him back. “Well aren’t ya’ll just greedy.”

Now there’s even more of a reason to fight. She has to get the stone away from them now, too. In a fight with another philosopher’s stone, Jack isn’t sure her own will hold up. She’s used it so much already, this fight may very well deplete it if they turn out to pose a challenge. That’s surely for the best.

Jack holds one hand out over her tray of tools, melding them together into a proper weapon to use, and her other hand over her own wound, closing it up effortlessly. They stop holding back.

“Surely you know not to play with rabid dogs.”

\- x -

Jack blinks her eyes open curiously. She’s incredibly disoriented and the world feels off. Every thought she has immediately scrambles into nonexistent as she tries to recall what she was doing, where she is, what happened, anything really. Instead, she catches sight of the man at her bedside and she jolts away from him hard, startled by the stranger.

“Relax,” he says easily. “Don’t hurt yourself.” Jack has no idea who this is and that doesn’t settle right with her. “I’m a friend of Geoff’s,” he explains. Geoff? That’s her husband? Of course, she remembers them getting married- kept their own names, it was too much of a pain to change them. “I’m Ryan Haywood.”

“Where- am I?” Jack asks. This place doesn’t look familiar. In fact, it looks like a fucking creepy ass basement.

“At my home,” he tells her. That’s not soothing. Geoff’s been in trouble before, what kind of friend is this? “What’s the last thing you remember?” Jack has to think about it very hard before she realises, she doesn’t remember. She doesn’t remember _anything_. There are memories but they’re disjointed and she doesn’t understand where they came from or the context of all of them. She can’t even fathom a time frame of when any of them could have happened.

“I-” she rambles out. “I don’t- what happened to me?”

“The real Jack Pattillo is dead,” Haywood says. Jack is stunned.

“Then how- then _who_ am I?” she demands of him. She may not remember much but she certainly feels alive and she definitely feels like Jack Pattillo. Haywood reaches for her blanket. Jack jerks away from him in a panic, grabbing onto the edge of it to make sure she’s properly covers. Haywood pauses and looks at her calmly. Jack slowly lets go, allowing him to uncover her chest.

Jack yelps. First she yelps at the massive, gaping hole in her chest, then she yelps at the fact that she doesn’t have any human bits inside that hole. It’s all metal bars and makeshift padding and who fucking knows what else. What the fuck?

“Easy,” Haywood says gently.

“What the fuck did you do to me!” Jack shouts back.

“I made you this body,” Haywood explains. “It’s an iron frame with a synthetic coating. I did my best to make you as strong and durable as possible without forsaking ‘aesthetic’. I’ve never made anything like this for someone before, though. It might be a little inelegant.”

“What the fuck,” Jack says, quieter this time. She can’t wrap her head around this.

“You’ve been soul bound to this body,” Haywood explains. “Geoff gave you as many of Jack Pattillo’s memories as he could and then gave you life by binding a soul to this body.” Jack swallows nervously, looking down into the semi-hollow cavern in her chest. Haywood points to a metal orb suspended where her heart should be.

“Your bound mark is inside of this,” he says. “If it’s ever destroyed, you’ll cease to exist. It’s completely sealed and it’ll withstand most physical force.” She has a metal heart now, _wonderful_.

“Who am I if not Jack Pattillo,” she demands.

“You’re intended to be Jack Pattillo, I won’t lie to you, but you don’t have to be. Geoff knew when he did this that was a possibility,” he says.

“Where is Geoff?” Jack sneers. How could he have done this to her? Haywood shifts out of the way slightly and in a bed across from Jack’s, Geoff lays unconscious. A small girl replaces the cool rag on his forehead. He’s missing both legs. Jack’s anger deflates a little.

“He was determined to bring Jack back in any way he could,” Haywood murmurs.

“Idiot,” Jack huffs under her breath. “Fucking idiot. Stupid _fucking_ idiot.”

“If you don’t want to exists, you don’t have to,” Haywood says. Jack’s heart flutters nervously- or not since she can see it right now. What a bizarre feeling. “Geoff doesn’t know you’re alive, yet. He passed out from blood loss and has been out ever since.” He’s offering to kill her. “I never expected this to work.”

“What about Geoff?  Jack asks softly.

“It’s not about Geoff,” Haywood says. “You can’t replace his dead wife no matter how much you try. You shouldn’t have to try to live someone else’s life. You can leave this place any time you want, Geoff knew that was a possibility too, but I won’t tell him you’re dead. You’re free to live whatever life you want- if you want.”

He says that, sure, but she has Jack’s memories. She remembers their stupid dates and getting married. She remembers getting into fights over the most ridiculous things. She remembers getting accepted as a state alchemist and finishing her degree and how happy she was. She remembers helping people, she remembers working so hard. She remembers disliking vegetables and drinking too much on her few days off. She remembers ‘we’ll have kids later, it’s not too late’. She remembers loving Geoff very much.

If she’s not Jack Pattillo then who is she supposed to be?

“I want to,” Jack says softly. “I- I won’t try to replace Jack, I think I understand what you mean, but I am her. I’m just- a different her.”

“I won’t offer again if you change your mind,” Haywood assures. Jack nods. Geoff went through all of this to make her this, she can’t just throw it away without trying. She doesn’t _want_ to throw it away. She remembers all those people she helped over the years, how much better she made their lives, how happy she made people. Jack isn’t even sure if she can do alchemy anymore and she certainly doesn’t remember how to be a doctor, but there’s time. It’s not too late.

“I’m going to close you up now, okay?” Haywood says. Jack nods in agreement, laying back down so he can place the section of her chest back. He uses an alchemy circle to seamlessly reattach it and then wipes it off carefully with a towel. Her skin feels weird. Everything feels weird. Should she even be able to feel? Jack raises her blanket a bit to examine herself before pulling it back up to cover herself from, well, the person that made her this body apparently.

“Did Geoff help you make this for me?” Jack asks softly.

“He helped me get the details right,” Haywood says. “Other than that, absolutely not. He’s a fucking brute with his alchemy.” Jack laughs a little.

“Figures,” she replies. “He couldn’t let me lose a little weight even in death.” Haywood doesn’t say anything but then again, she supposes she didn’t expect him to. “So, uh, what now? For Geoff and I, I mean? Last time I checked, human transmutation is still pretty illegal.”

“Geoff hasn’t been a state alchemist for a long time,” Haywood assures her. “Pattillo died more than two years ago.”

“Oh,” Jack mouths.

“For now, I guess you both will be staying with me?” Haywood says like he just now realised he didn’t think this through. “You’re supposed to be dead and Geoff’s supposed to have legs do it’ll be best if people don’t see you. At least until you figure your new lives out.”

“Who are you?” Jack asks again.

“A friend of Geoff’s,” Haywood says again.

“Yeah,” she says. “Sure. Why would you help him do this? Why would you _know_ how to do this? Why do you have a chimera?” The girl jumps a little from what she’s doing on the other side of the room, obviously a little startled by being called out so suddenly.

“That’s my daughter Edgar,” Haywood explains. “I’m just a researcher.”

“For the military?” Jack asks.

“Absolutely not,” Haywood snorts back.

“Good, good,” Jack nods. Edgar sheepishly wanders over, hiding behind her father a little as she examines Jack a little more closely now. “Hey,” Jack says softly. “Aren’t you a cute little thing.” Edgar beams.

“Would you like some tea, Mrs. Pattillo?” Edgar offers. Jack looks at Haywood questioningly.

“You probably can’t taste it,” he says. “And you’ll have to manually empty your ‘stomach’. You don’t actually have any biological functions. You just look pretty.” Jack pales a little. This is going to be hard to get used to.

“I think I’ll pass first now, Edgar,” Jack murmurs. “Sorry sweetie.”

“It’s okay,” Edgar promises. “Can we go have a snack now, papa?”

“Sure,” Haywood agrees. “Let’s leave Jack to have some time to himself. Just call me if you need anything.” Jack nods quietly and they disappear upstairs together. She glances over at the other bed, Geoff’s face scrunched up in pain as he sleeps on. Jack looks down at herself again.

They’re just a pair of fools, aren’t they?”

\- x -

Jack carefully opens her eye as she feels something wet hit her cheek. It’s the little girl she helped earlier. People have begun to crowd around her, likely coming out to see what has happened now that all the commotion has settled. That fight took a lot more out of her than she thought but in the end, she has always been a force to be reckoned with.

“You know,” Jack says softly as she closes her eyes. “My husband and I would have loved to have a daughter like you.” The girl sniffles sadly over her and Jack can hear some of the others begin to mourn her, too. There’s nothing they can do for her. Jack isn’t even sure where all of her _is_.

“Don’t cry,” Jack murmurs and she taps the alchemy circle she’s drawn in the dirt beside her. The little girl blinks curiously. “I’ve done God’s work. They owe me one.”

And Jack laughs.


	4. Timing is Nothing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Homunculus, homunculus, chimera.

“I can just _make_ you legs, Geoff,” Jack snaps.

“I don’t need legs, Jack!” Geoff snaps back.

“What do you mean ‘you don’t need legs’? You’ve lived your whole life with legs! And now you won’t stop complaining about being less mobile!” Jack shouts at him.

“I don’t _want_ legs!” Geoff rephrases irritably.

“Why don’t you want legs!” Jack asks loudly.

“Mr. Geoff and Mrs. Jack sure argue a lot,” Edgar says quietly as she licks at her ice cream cone.

“Yeah,” Ryan agrees, already beginning to bite off pieces of his cone.

“Are they going to be alright?” Edgar asks.

“Unno,” Ryan replies. Edgar pouts a little.

“But you’re smart, papa. Shouldn’t you know?” she insists. She’s just worried is all. After all, Ryan’s never gotten into an argument like Geoff and Jack do with anyone. Granted, he’s never had anyone to get into arguments like this, either.

“Hey, no matter how smart a person is, there’s always going to be stuff we don’t know,” Ryan assures. Edgar nods thoughtfully and licks at her ice cream some more. “Also, papa’s dumb as hell about most things that aren’t alchemy.”

"I think you’re smart, papa,” Edgar encourages. “I’m going to be as smart as you one day!”

“You’re gonna be a lot smarter than me, Edgar,” Ryan promises. She beams excitedly. Already she’s so smart and whether she knows it or not, she uses alchemy to an incredible degree of skill. Of course, it’s mostly to play but none the less. After watching Ryan work for weeks on Jack’s body, Edgar turned around and used this to make herself a pair of very well crafted dolls. They’re lesbians, she says, and they love tea parties, too.

Edgar stares at her ice cream quietly and Ryan glances down at her to make sure she’s alright. If Geoff and Jack arguing starts bothering her much more, they’re going to have to go.

“Papa,” Edgar murmurs. “Are there more chimeras like me?”

“Like you?” he repeats.

“Part people?” she questions like she’s not really sure this is what she means.

“Yeah,” Ryan says. “There are. Most of them are in military labs, though. Not all of them, but a lot of them. State alchemists make a lot of chimera and ‘test’ on them in secret. If they can, sometimes they escape but- not usually.”

“Can we help them?” Edgar asks. Ryan smiles a little.

“Not right now, Edgar,” he tells her. “You have to get bigger and stronger and better at alchemy, first, okay? You have to be ready to take on the entire military if you want to help people.”

“Like you, papa?” she asks.

“Better than me,” Ryan assures. Edgar takes a chomp out of her ice cream and hums thoughtfully. He’s not sure where this line of thought came from but she’s always been so curiously. Perhaps she’s just never connected the dots between herself and other chimera being the same thing until Jack started talking about it. Jack is curious, too, perhaps too much for her own good.

“Mrs. Jack and Mr. Geoff used to be state alchemist,” Edgar mentions.

“They did,” Ryan agrees.

“Are they bad?” she asks.

“Inherently, yeah,” he says. “There’s no such thing as a ‘good’ state alchemist. The code of conduct and morals they follow are based on violent oppression, fear, and supremacy. Even if they’re not that anymore, these are the morals they know.”

“If you teach a dog to bite, it’ll always know how to bite?” Edgar repeats curiously. Ryan laughs. She remembers the strangest things.

“Yeah, Edgar. That doesn’t mean it will, but it knows it can,” he assures.

“Mrs. Jack and Mr. Geoff can stay here, though?” she asks. “Even though they used to be state alchemist.”

“For now, yeah,” Ryan promises her.

“Will they bite?” she asks. Ryan doesn’t reply immediately, looking back to where Geoff and Jack are still throwing a hissy fit in another part of the house. He’s afraid. If they do ‘bite’, it’ll turn Edgar’s and his world upside-down all over again. It was easier to run when Edgar was too small to understand. They have roots now, they have a home.

“I don’t know, Edgar,” Ryan says softly. “Bad people don’t have to be bad forever. They don’t have to do bad things.”

“Mr. Geoff and Mrs. Jack are really nice,” Edgar murmurs worriedly. “I don’t want them to go away.”

“I know, Edgar,” Ryan replies and he reaches over to pet her head softly. She leans against him. “Only time will tell.”

\- x -

“Time is an illusion, we’ve all heard the saying before,” the researcher says. “Time is relative. What does that really mean, though? Time is a manner of which our brains process actions and events relative to ourselves. All of time, everything that ever has, is, and will, happens all at once. A split moment that combined human conscious can only perceive at an infinite fraction of the speed.” The other researchers listen on with thoughtful nods.

“But what does that have to do with this, you may be asking. It’s simple, if time does not exist and is simply a perception of our own beings then who’s to stop someone from altering that perception and in turn, altering our reality?” he goes on. “Say hello to Free. Say hi, Free.”

Free doesn’t say anything as he’s gestured to.

“Not a very talkative one, don’t worry,” the researcher says. “Free here can manipulate time in very specific places as he wants. The _first_ homunculus we’ve created with the ability to do this. Of course, using this ability requires a vast amount of energy and as such, we had to break down the ‘failed’ homunculi in order to keep Free fueled, and alive, but that’s a small price to pay.” The other researchers ‘oh’ and ‘ah’.

“We have to keep him pinned up like this to prevent him from intentionally depleting his philosopher’s stone. He’s a bit of a suicidal heart throb if you know what I mean,” he jokes and the others laugh with him.

“Here, let’s have a demonstration,” he says and he takes an apple out of his pocket. “Don’t be alarmed if he screams. Free doesn’t feel pain on the same scale we do, he just does this because he knows he looks human and he wants people to feel pity for him. Then he murders them.” The researcher sets the apple down in Free’s line of sight and holds up a remote with his other hand.

A sharp sting laces across Free’s back as his philosopher’s stone is forcibly used to rapidly increase time and Free shouts. It hurts. It hurts so much. The apple decays in a second, completely rotting away into nothing before being released into real time again. Free pants for breath back, pulling against his binds instinctively to try to wriggle away from the pain. More fuel is pumped back into his stone. The group of researchers clap at this little magic trick, obviously more than impressed.

“Fortunately, we can keep Free here well charged with all these failed chimera,” he explains, vaguely gesturing to the multiple stories and cells each packed with various chimera. “Nothing goes to waste! Imagine the applications! And it’s not just organic material, either. Let’s have another test.”

As the researcher begins to move to place something else, a loud buzzing begins. The group of them look around curiously for a moment and then an alarm sounds. Every cell clicks open.

“Oh. Well,” the researcher murmurs. It takes a few seconds for the chimera to understand what’s going on and when they do, they begin to flood out of their cells in a flurry. The group of researchers urgently move into their safe room. “Don’t worry! This doesn’t usually happen!” The door barely closes before a chimera lunges at it, banging on the outside violently as they try to get to the squishy treats inside.

Chimera swarm the room, immediately taking to breaking things and attacking guards as they try to find their way out. Many of them don’t even care about escaping, only about seeking revenge on those responsible for what happens here. Several of them brutally attack the safe room, yanking the walling down around it and slamming against it hard to try to yank it out of the flooring.

None of them bother Free. Most of them don’t even notice him. They likely aren’t even aware he’s alive and even if they did, they probably wouldn’t care much to help him. He’s not one of them, he’s not ‘one’ of anyone. Free feels something break. He’s not completely sure what it was but he is aware instantly that he is suddenly fully in control of his own ability. Not only that, but he’s heavily charged with souls for this ‘demonstration’. Free remains still, as if nothing has happened, as chimera and guards continue to move around him, none of them any the wiser.

Alchemist start moving in to suppress the wild chimera. They make no effort to be easy about it, forcing chimera back into their cells unconscious and even dead. Time holds little meaning to Free and as soon as the riot has begun, it’s over again. The chimera that failed to escape, most of them, have hushed and now await what punishment will come. Alchemist move around to check the cells are properly sealed up while guards move their dead coworkers.

The researchers slowly exit their safe room again.

“See? No problem. We are perfectly capable of handling even a full force escape attempt,” he assures. They look impressed. “I’m so sorry about that. Please, let’s continue. Where were we? Ah, yes, inorganic material.” From his pocket, he sets a solid metal cube down where the apple had once been and again, takes his remote out. This time, Free doesn’t feel the pain and the cube doesn’t age.

“Come now, Free, don’t be difficult. He fights it sometimes,” the researcher explains. “We’re still working on it.” Free pauses him. The other researchers look on curiously as he completely ceases to move, rapidly begins to age, and then die. They all clap again, significantly more enthused about this ‘real’ application. Free releases him, his decrepit body breaking upon the floor as he tumbles over. They all look at him expectedly.

“And it can rewind time as well, correct?” one of them asks. They’re waiting for him to bring this researcher back to life by ‘rewinding’ his time. Free, just as rapidly, de-ages the whole group of them until they’re ‘unborn’, unable to survive outside of a womb- or test tube he supposes. They do terrible things here.

Another alarm sounds but this time, it’s because Free uses his ability to rust away the cuffs holding him.

“Code Golf Alfa Victor one November. This is not a drill. I repeat, code Golf Alfa Victor one November. The head researcher is dead. Contain by any means necessary,” the intercom voice says. Free rubs his wrists gently but they don’t hurt for long despite being tied up for what feels like forever. He looks around but he’s not sure where to go from here. He’s never been outside of the lab before, he’s not even sure how to get there. Free wanders slowly away from where he’d been kept.

Then he stops.

Free turns to look at the chimera, still battered and bruised from the riot, sitting quietly in his cell with more than one dead cellmate. He remembers this one. This is one of the only people that talk to him, even though he never spoke back, and that treated him like an actual person. Free isn’t sure he’d even know that was a possibility if not for this small act- he’s not sure he’d ever change his mind from death to escape without it.

The cell bars begin to deteriorate and the chimera inside makes a startled ‘hap’ noise. In retrospect, perhaps this chimera is the reason his equipment broke.

“There it is! Don’t let it escape!” A pair of guards appear at the door suddenly and immediately open fire on him. The chimera throws itself in front of him without hesitation, shielding him with its back. After a moment, though, it blinks in confusion and turns around to see what has happened. Their bullets sit suspended in air, frozen moments before reaching his chimera friend. The guards are equally as startled.

Free pushes the bullets back with force, changing their direction as he unpauses them and sending them in wild paths back the way they came all at once. They drop dead. His friend looks amazed and Free preens happily. As he’s about to speak, an alchemist comes at them fast. This is irrelevant to Free, though, and he simply pauses the man just the same. His friend looks up at him in alarm.

“Would you- like to leave with me?” Free asks. His friend looks shocked.

“Y-yeah!” he replies eagerly and he grins. Free grins back as he grabs the alchemist by the neck and lifts him up off the ground easily. With some force, he chucks the man upward, releasing him from time and sending him hurling against the ceiling. The impact is massive, knocking a hole in the concrete and raining down debris. Free pauses the falling stone, giving them a somewhat uneven path of stepping stones to the open hole. Free begins his ascent and his friend quickly follows.

A few steps in, however, he stops. The chimera glances around a bit and Free looks at him worriedly. They’re not the same.

“What about the others?” he asks softly. Free glances around as well. He deteriorates every cell door despite knowing that his stone is beginning to run low. If he’s not careful, he’ll never make it out of here but- his new friend smiles at him so excitedly.

“This way!” he calls and all the chimera urgently flood to follow the two of them. The riot from earlier has already settled their hate and now all they wish to be is free. Free quickly leads the way. Outside of the building, there’s dozens and dozens of guards awaiting them. His friend looks disappointed. Free isn’t staying here. They can’t make him.

This is the first time he’s seen the sky; the first time he’s see /outside. It’s far better than he ever could have imagined. The world is so vibrant and there’s so much of it. They can make it.

“I’m not going to make it,” Free murmurs to his friend softly.

“We can try,” he replies with a sad smile. “I’m not going back in there.”

“I’m glad you agree,” Free says. “I need help with something. Can you do alchemy?”

“I- I don’t know anymore,” he answers. “I could before they brought me here but- I don’t know.”

“Could you try? For me?” Free asks.

“I- of course,” his friend answers. “What should I, uh, be doing?”

“I need a philosopher’s stone,” Free says. His friend jolts. “You remember how they make them, yeah?”

“Y-yeah,” he murmurs.

“Fortunately, there’s plenty of people,” Free assures, looking back out over the guards all determinedly fixated on the doors for anyone to come out. His friend laughs.

“You know, you’re right. There are,” he agrees.

“What’s your name?” Free asks. The lad blinks in surprise.

“Uh. Oh. It’s been a long time,” he murmurs. “Jeremy? I think?”

“Well Jeremy,” Free says. “Let’s try.” Jeremy grins at him.

\- x -

“Some of those FAKE broke into another lab,” Jack murmurs, tossing the newspaper down in front of Geoff. “Killed dozens of people. Military and prisoners.”

“Again?” Geoff sighs deeply. “So close together.”

“There were chimera in this one,” she says. “A lot of them.”

“Any of them survive?” he asks.

“Dunno. The newspaper didn’t exactly mention the thousand of chimera they were keeping there,” Jack assures him. “Just that there weren’t any survivors, prisoners or otherwise.”

“What’s their excuse this time?” Ryan asks suddenly as he sets down a teapot in preparation for dinner. “Internalized pressure? Suicide bombing?”

“What are you suggesting?” Jack sneers irritably.

“The military lies for personal gain,” Ryan answers without hesitation. He and Jack exchange irritated looks. It’s clear they disagree greatly in these areas and it’s not the first time they’ve butted heads over it.

“Because telling the world there’s thousands of human chimera out there is a great idea,” Jack says.

“But imprisoning them is better,” Ryan replies. “Or do you really believe they’re there for their best interest.”

“Alright,” Geoff interrupts swiftly before this can become an honest argument. “There’s nothing we can do about it anymore, anyways. Let’s just relax.” Jack sighs deeply but she relents. Geoff knows a part of her really does understand that a lot of what the military does is unacceptable. She seems to take it as a personal attack, though, as if everything she did for the military was in bad blood. Maybe Ryan does mean it that way.

“We should be careful, anyways,” Jack says. “FAKEs have targeted state alchemists before, ex or not. If they’re being more active lately, they may come poking around for Geoff.”

“I’ll be fine,” Geoff says exhaustively. “I’m not helpless.”

“Dinner will be ready soon,” Ryan murmurs as he turns to return to the kitchen with Edgar. Geoff looks at Jack mildly once he leaves.

“What?” Jack scoffs.

“Ryan’s done a lot for us, Jack,” he says gently.

“I don’t think helping you perform a human transmutation is good proof of his character,” she replies blandly. She may have a point but still, it was Geoff’s idea. He likely would have done it anyways.

“I’m just saying,” Geoff murmurs. “We’re not military anymore. Don’t stress yourself out so much.”

“I guess,” Jack huffs back. “Don’t be so sure he doesn’t have ulterior motives of his own, though. A man like that doesn’t help people like us for no reason.”

“We’ll just have to wait and see, then,” Geoff says. “We can handle ourselves. We always have.”

\- x -

Jeremy looks at his hands. There’s so much blood.

Free could only protect him, he didn’t have enough energy for everyone else and even then, only necessary steps were taken. Jeremy understands. He didn’t want his friends to die but, they all knew what was going to happen when they started this. He couldn’t ask Free to sacrifice his life to save someone who- would likely die soon after. So he did what he could, what he had to; he used the bodies of his friends to make the alchemy circle.

It happened so quickly, but he knew he would. He’s seen the scientists do it before, sacrificing his friends in vast numbers to fuel Free to their hearts desire. They’re all dead now. His friends and the scientist and the guards and anyone else around. It’s just him and a fully charged Free now.

“My,” Free says finally. Jeremy looks at him. They screamed so loud. “Uh. Sorry. About your friends.”

“It’s- okay,” Jeremy says. “We knew this would happen one day, Free. Don’t worry. I think many of them would be happy to know they helped wipe this place off the map. No one else is going to get hurt here.”

“Yeah,” Free murmurs. “Where should we go?”

“We should, uh, find a new home, I guess,” Jeremy says. “Somewhere safe where no one will find us.”

“That sounds bloody nice, doesn’t it?” Free grins and Jeremy smiles back. They can be something new, now. They can make it. “Uh, Jeremy?”

“Yeah buddy,” Jeremy replies.

“Now that we’re free could I- have a new name?” he asks.

“You can have whatever you want, buddy. Let’s go, okay? You can think about it while we get away from here.”

Free beams so brightly.

Jeremy knows he’ll have to make more philosopher stones in the future to keep his friend alive.


	5. Theophobia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A vagabond, a homunculus, and a chimera walk into a bar. Everyone is touched emotionally.

“Well what do you think?” Mica asks. “It’s good, right?”

“Yeah,” Ray replies as he closes the book again. “It’s really good. It’s rare to find such in depth research outside of the labs and especially uncoded. Where did you get this?”

“I did some lookin’ around the library,” she assures. “It was just there.” Ray turns the book over, flipping through it momentarily before looking back at her.

“This isn’t a library book,” he says.

“Yeah, I noticed that already, genius,” Mica agrees. “Someone put it where I could find it. I haven’t noticed anyone following us lately.”

“Me either,” Ray agrees. Granted, he’s been off kilter ever since he lost his eye so she’s the better judge of that anyways. “Someone must have noticed you’re a homunculus.”

“How would they have noticed that?” Mica questions. “I’ve been careful.”

“I don’t know,” Ray admits. “But we should go. I think we should pay this Vagabond a visit.”

“Really?” Mica murmurs curiously. “What for?”

“To have a look at you, firstly,” Ray answers. “Make sure I didn’t fuck you up somehow. Beyond that, I don’t know? Give us some advice on what we should do from here? I don’t want to run forever.”

“Mm, yeah, you make some good points,” Mica agrees. “But if he’s weird I’m going to crush him.”

“Fair enough, man,” Ray says.

\- x -

Michael tries to push himself up again but it’s difficult. He’s beaten up something bad and several of his broken bones make it difficult to get off his face. As he pushes to his elbows, his body gives out on him again and he lays on the cold, stony ground with a tired, annoyed hufff.

“I thought you’d be more of a challenge, Jones,” the commander murmurs as he follows where he’s thrown Michael. “You’ve been such a pain to my troop and this is what you offer? What’s wrong? Where’s this ‘powerful’ alchemy of yours?” Michael spits some blood onto the floor and runs his tongue over his teeth.

“What are you talking about, idiot?” he replies. The commander looks down at him questioningly. “I’m not an alchemist.”

“What? What are you-?”

Lindsay explodes out from the wall beside them. The commander isn’t quick enough to respond in a proper time, barely dodging the loose bricks that come flying out at him and certainly not escaping Lindsay’s grip. She latches onto him instantly, clasping her hands around his neck with a surefire death grip.

“Surprise, bitch,” she grins and with sheer spite, immolates him alive. It’s so instantaneous, his entire body going up in hot, red flames as he struggles to get away from her. The tattoos he uses for his alchemy burn away so quickly, he’s rendered helpless in seconds, only left to scream as she holds him steady. It’s only after he’s stopped his struggling does Lindsay let go, dropping his charred body to the floor in a heap. She shakes her hands out, grinning to herself.

They never guess it’s her. They always assume hot headed, quick to anger, easily provoked Michael is the alchemist. Then they never make that mistake again. Of course, it’s intentional, too. That allows situations like these to happen. Michael’s sturdy enough for it and Lindsay’s powerful enough to make sure he’s never in any real danger. He trusts her, obviously, with his life.

“Hey asshole, what about me?” Michael scoffs at her. Lindsay glances down at him.

“Well, I don’t know Michael, what about you?” she replies.

“Oh shut up and help me up already. I don’t need that bullshit ‘take it easy’ shit right now,” he grumbles. Lindsay grabs him by one of his arms to yank him up off the ground, the little bit of leverage helping him get some sort of balance on his own feet. She shifts to let him learn on her so they can get out of here.

“Right, because it was necessary to taunt him like that,” she says mildly. So maybe Michael puts himself in more danger than he reasonable needs to, what’s it matter? They’ve made it this far and it’s worked out for the best in most situations. He’s not dead yet. They limp towards the exit of the secluded tunnel, only hoping that no one else shows up before they can make their escape. Hopefully that doctor is still in town.

“I didn’t think he’d follow that far,” Michael murmurs.

“Yeah,” Lindsay agrees. “I didn’t expect him to be so determined, either.”

“We really fuckin’ pissed them off,” he says. She laughs.

“As opposed to usual,” she replies. “That’s one less state alchemist after us, at least.”

“We should have planned that better,” Michael insists. “Those chimera didn’t stand a chance.”

“They caught us off guard,” Lindsay says. “We didn’t know they had a homunculus in there otherwise we would have known they’d be better prepared.”

“Yeah, well fucking shitty intel just cost a whole bunch of innocent chimera their lives,” Michael scoffs. “Fuckin’ bastards, I can’t believe I let them sneak up on me like that.”

“We’ll get them back, don’t worry,” Lindsay promises. “You know how much they love their ‘equal exchange’.” Michael grounds his teeth. There were so many people in there. If he’d been a little fast, maybe things would have gone better. They had to flee. He knows by now, he can’t help anyone if he’s dead. It took him a while to understand that.

“We don’t even know if that homunculus was stable,” he says.

“We’ll be back,” Lindsay assures him. “Better prepared next time. Right now, we just need to get you fixed up.”

“You got those files at least, right,” Michael asks.

“Of course,” she agrees, grinning at him. “You posed quite the distraction- like usual.” Michael smirks.

“I guess something’s better than nothing.”

At least this wasn’t all for waste.

\- x -

“Edgar!” Ryan calls. “Into the hole!”

Edgar is alert immediately. She perks up, quickly grabbing all her toys in one great big armful and hurrying off without so much as a second thought. Geoff watches her go curiously before leaning back in his wheelchair to peer out the window. Sure enough, a pair of figures are making their way towards the front door. They don’t look like military but at the same time, they don’t exactly look friendly, either. No one who wears creepy cloaks like that can be good news.

Jack cautiously glances out as well and when she sees them, exchanges looks with Geoff. She nods agreeably, deciding that until they know who these people are and what they want, it’ll be better that they don’t know Jack is here. Hastily, she follows Edgar into wherever it is she hides when people come about. Geoff will have to have a conversation with Ryan later about why it’s call ‘the hole’ like some sort of terrible punishment.

Ryan comes down from his library, generally where he is when he’s not in his lab and there’s people around. He doesn’t much care for company it seems. Geoff feels bad sometimes that him and Jack being here seems to disturb Edgar spending time with her dad. That being said, it’s not like Edgar doesn’t disappear with Ryan when she feels like it, anyways. He supposes a little girl doesn’t want to spend all her time in a dark little alchemy lab or a dusty old library.

Geoff looks at Ryan as he approaches the door, nodding affirmatively to assure that if it comes down to it, Ryan has his help. If they’re lucky, these people aren’t looking for a fight. Ryan puts on his tired, lonely researcher face just as there’s a knock and with an irritable noise, he heads to answer the door. He pauses long enough to rustle beside it which, Geoff realises, is him preparing an alchemy circle hidden underneath the entry table. It would be easy for him to reach for it from the door if needed to.

“Hello?” Ryan says questioningly, only cracking the door open far enough for him to see out. “Can I help you?”

“Are you Ryan Haywood?” one of them asks. Ryan doesn’t answer right away, looking the pair of them over first.

“Yes, that’s me,” he agrees. “Who are you?”

“Can we come in?” they ask.

“I don’t think so,” Ryan replies. “I need to get back to my work.” Geoff watches as Ryan’s hold on the door tightens, preparing to physically hold it closed, and he sets his other hand on the side table. Likewise, Geoff prepares for a fight.

“Relax,” the voice says but it’s not to Ryan. “Hey man, we’re not trying to freak you out or anything. You’re the one who redid this, right?” Ryan opens the door suddenly as he takes the book, keeping one hand on his alchemy circle as he flips through it.

“I was wondering where this went,” he murmurs. “Did you steal this from me?”

“Nah man, we’re from up north-west,” comes the reply. “We just stumbled across it.”

“We need to know where the Vagabond is,” the other one finally speaks. Ryan stares at his book, more interested in this than them.

“Did you do this?” Ryan asks. “These additions? Thermal expansion is only relative to combustion alchemy when applied to long term and mundane needs- which is rare. You don’t have to figure in heat because it doesn’t produce heat after its use. Though I suppose-”

“Yeah, yeah, nerd,” the figure says impatiently. “Look, I’m sure you’re very book smart but we need to find the Vagabond. Are you going to help us or not?” Ryan takes his hand off his circle to flip through his book more attentively.

“I can’t do that,” he says. One of them steps forward suddenly and grabs Ryan around the throat, lifting him up. This is quite the fete for being much shorter than him. Geoff hesitates to see how he’ll respond to this because he doesn’t seem to be just yet.

“Tell us where the Vagabond is,” they repeat irritably.

“You’re a homunculus,” Ryan says. Geoff jolts and so do the two figures. The homunculus drops him back on his feet quickly. What the fuck? This is exactly why Ryan’s ‘research’ needs to be thrown in the fucking fire or at least not have his fucking name on it. This is so bad.

“How did you know that?” they demand, stepping away from him a little.

“Aside from the strength? Your energy readout is different,” he says.

“You can see that?” the other asks.

“No,” Ryan replies. “I can feel it, though. I can’t help you two. I would like to, though I’m not sure you have good intentions, but the Vagabond is dead. He’s been dead for- six years now? State alchemist killed him.”

“ _Fuck_ ,” one of them hisses. Ryan steps back to let them into his house. Geoff watches curiously but they don’t seem to notice him yet.

“You know a lot about homunculi?” they ask.

“I do,” Ryan agrees as he glances between the two of them. “What’s the problem? And what were your names again?”

“Ray,” one answers.

“I’m Mica,” the other says.

“Well, Mica you’re a very beautifully made homunculus. It takes a lot of things going very right to have the quality that you do. Generally homunculi tend to look vaguely inhuman even when they’re not completely not human. Skin problems, unsettling proportions, out of place colour schemes. I take it that Ray here is the alchemist that helped you? Your proportions are very well handled, a surprisingly hard feat for a feminine homunculus believe it or not, and your skin and hair are well matched. I’m very impressed.”

“I’m not sure if I’m flattered or you’re creepy,” Mica murmurs.

“Sorry,” Ryan says sheepishly. “I haven’t seen a homunculus in a very long time, let alone such a superb one.”

“I’ll be flattered,” she says then squints at him. “For now.”

“Why were you two looking for the Vagabond?” Ryan asks curiously, more or less having dropped his tired researcher facade.

“We wanted to make sure Mica was alright,” Ray explains. “I don’t know shit about homunculus and I don’t want her to, I don’t know, explode or something?”

“Unstable homunculi generally don’t last more than a couple days, if that,” Ryan assures. “You seem very stable, though. If you made it this far from the west, then I doubt you’ll see any problems in the future.” Ray and Mica exchange looks like this doesn’t quite settle their nerves.

“So what? She’s just- fine?” Ray asks. “I mean, she’s a homunculus and all?”

“Yeah?” Ryan replies. “I, uh, could look at her stone and make sure but she’s obviously in good condition. Are you not feeling well, Mica?”

“I feel fine,” Mica scoffs back.

“I just figured something would be wrong,” Ray admits. “Homunculus aren’t supposed to- happen?”

“Uh huh,” Ryan says slowly, giving Ray a mildly annoyed look. “Homunculi ‘happen’ all the time. Even ones that don’t pass for human nearly as well as Mica are still people and allowed to exist peacefully.”

“But they usually don’t,” Ray answers irritably.

“Because ‘usually’ they’re created by greedy military labs in an attempt to create super human soldiers and are treated inhuman, inferior, and substandard. Of course they get mad. You should know,” Ryan says. Ray stiffens. “I know a state alchemist when I see one.”

“Don’t,” Mica warns.

“Like I said, as far as homunculus go, you seem perfectly healthy which is really all that matters but even so, you’re very well crafted physically as well. I can look at your stone and tell you a little more but I’m not sure what you’re expecting,” Ryan assures. Mica looks at Ray then back again before nodding.

“It would make me feel better if you looked,” she says.

“Alright,” Ryan sighs. He closes the door behind them. “We were about to sit down and have lunch, though, so after that.”

“‘We’?” Mica repeats curiously.

“The people in town seem to think you live here alone,” Ray murmurs. Ryan gestures to Geoff and they turn to look at him curiously. He waves.

“That’s Geoff,” Ryan introduces.

“Thousand Pound Bite,” Ray says. “Thought you keeled over.”

“Could say the same to you, Bloodhound,” Geoff replies. The look they exchange is initially bitter but after a moment, they both seem to realise the position they’ve gotten themselves in. Ray looks away.

“Edgar! We have guests!” Ryan calls. Edgar doesn’t have to be asked twice. She comes galloping out of the back immediately, eager to meet new people. Due to her being a chimera, she has to stay cooped up a lot of the time and never gets to meet anyone for fear that someone will come try to take her away, or worse. This is a rare occasion. Geoff’s kind of insulted that Ryan didn’t bring Edgar out to meet him.

Edgar happily runs to her father’s side and he picks her up to be on everyone else’s level. Ray seems- surprised. Mica grins, obviously not seeing a problem with this at all.

“This is my daughter Edgar,” Ryan introduces. Edgar smiles excitedly, waving at the two of them.

“What happened to her?” Ray asks.

“You’re so cute! Hello Edgar! I’m Mica,” Mica introduces herself.

“You look familiar,” Edgar murmurs. Mica looks at her in surprise and so do Ryan and Ray. Oh no.

“Do I?” Mica replies curiously.

“Edgar, how do you-” Ryan begins.

“You look like my next mama!” Edgar says. Geoff puts his head in his hands. Ryan chokes. Mica and Ray stare at her before Ray starts laughing. This fucking kid, she’s going to be the death of Geoff.

“Who- told you to say that?” Mica asks, giving Ryan a very, very irritated look.

“Mr. Geoff!” Edgar says matter of factly. They all turn to Geoff. Ryan gives him the evil eye, not exactly unusual but actually deserved this time. He didn’t think she’d repeat it!

“It was a joke!” Geoff assures. “Also, why should I have assumed the first cute lady that came through here would be a homunculus!”

“He doesn’t live here,” Ryan announces.

“You’re a homunculus?” Edgar asks. “I’m a chimera! Would you like to have tea, Mica?”

“I’d love to have some tea,” Mica grins. Edgar wriggles out of her dad’s grip to hurry off and get her tea set. The two of them look at Ryan again.

“No but really,” Ray says. “What did you do to her.” Well this is going to go poorly. Geoff still hasn’t found out the actual story behind this. He’s sure Ryan didn’t just pop out a cow chimera after eight months.

“I didn’t,” Ryan says firmly. “I used to be married to an alchemist. I’m not anymore.” That’s more info than Geoff’s ever gotten. Obviously Ryan feels more of a connection with someone that isn’t a state alchemist.

“That’s nice. Where are they?” Mica asks.

“We want to murder him,” Ray confirms. Ryan laughs.

“I appreciate it, but the Vagabond killed him a long time ago,” he promises. “Make yourselves at home. I’m going to start lunch. There are some more books about homunculi in the living room if you’d like.”

“Yeah, thanks dude,” Ray says.

“Thanks Ryan,” Mica smiles at him. Edgar comes running back with her tea pot.

“Look! I alchemized this one yesterday after Mrs. Jack accidentally broke it! She’s _way_ stronger than she thinks. It’s my new favorite!”

\- x -

“Hey Jeremy,” Gavin says softly. Jeremy looks up from the quick meal he’s found of flowers and ants. Ever since they changed him, he’s had weird cravings for food. Admittedly, Jeremy isn’t one hundred percent sure what an armadillo is but fuck if it doesn’t like bugs.

“Yeah buddy?” he answers. Jeremy never expected Gavin to talk much but as they travel further and further away from the lab, he seems to be more and more interested in asking as many questions as physically possible.

“You think there’s other people like me?” Gavin asks. Jeremy blinks.

“Of course, buddy!” he replies without even thinking about it. This seems to catch Gavin off guard and he looks back, startled.

“Really?” he asks.

“I heard some scientists talking about another lab trying to make a homunculus, too,” Jeremy says. “I’m sure they’re not the only one.” Gavin lights up immediately, obviously more than interested in this news. Jeremy would have thought he’d know something like that but then again, he doesn’t seem to have listened to the scientists at all. Which is fair, really.

“Can we- go see?” Gavin asks. They both know that if they do that, it’ll just end in another bloodbath but fortunately that’s not really an option.

“I guess,” Jeremy murmurs. “But last I heard it was totally wiped out.”

“By the homunculus they made?” he questions.

“Probably,” he agrees, stuffing another flower in his mouth.

“Should we try to find them?” Gavin asks.

“We can try? We’re not doing anything else,” Jeremy says. “I’m not sure if you’ll be happy when you meet them, though.”

“And why not?” Gavin puffs defensively.

“Homunculus are- not all like you, Gav,” Jeremy murmurs. “They can be really mean and cruel for no other reason than just to be. I’m not sure they’ll like even you and they certainly won’t like me.”

“Well,” he says with a sigh. “I don’t want that. Where should we go then? We have to go somewhere, right?”

“Do you want to go somewhere?” Jeremy asks curiously. He can’t go home and Gavin doesn’t have one. Where could two people like them possibly be welcome?

“Yeah,” Gavin says. “I think I’d like to find that homunculus anyways, even if they won’t like us. Maybe they will?”

“Sure buddy,” Jeremy agrees with a soft grin. “Maybe they will.”

Maybe they’ll find somewhere they belong in the process.


	6. A Girl's Best Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan and the Jones check out a stone. Jeremy’s here now. also Gavin I guess.

“Alright,” Ryan says as he has a seat and motions Mica into a chair beside him. She plops down into it and he turns to face her, pulling his glasses up onto his face. “Do you mind showing me your philosopher’s stone?”

Sure, Ray knows that Ryan likely has no intention of hurting either of them, but he can’t prove that. Even someone with a chimera daughter may not exactly welcome the idea of homunculus. Ray puts his pistol down beside him with an audible noise and Ryan glances at him halfly. He doesn’t look bothered by this. He turns back again.

Mica cautiously reveals the stone embedded in her chest for him to have a look at, her flesh moving out of the way neatly and effortlessly. She can manipulate herself in a multitude of ways but she doesn’t like to. Ray thinks she doesn’t like appearing not human for even a second. Of course, when most people react poorly to anything even the slightest bit ‘off’, it’s easy to see why. Ryan peers through his glasses into the cavity of her chest and stares thoughtfully.

“What was your conduit?” he asks.

“My what?” Mica replies.

“Oh, it’s the link between you and the piece of humanity used to instill you. What was Ray feeling when he helped you?” Ryan explains. Mica looks to Ray questioningly.

“Uh? Upset?” Ray says. “Furious? Idk dude.”

“Really?” Ryan murmurs.

“Is that bad?” Mica asks.

“Bad? Not really,” Ryan assures. “Generally a conduit heavily determines the kind of personality that manifests itself in a homunculus. You don’t really seem to be an angry person, though. This could mean that the conduit didn’t take but it doesn’t look like that’s the case.”

“What if a conduit doesn’t take?” she questions. Ryan sits back, taking his glasses off and putting them on the top of his head. He crosses his arms thoughtfully.

“It depends,” he says. “Usually, it means the resulting homunculus is a closed system. Essentially, that means you run off the energy of your stone and only that. If it depletes, you die. Theoretically, an open system homunculus could exist without a conduit but it likely wouldn’t last long. They would probably, well, face extraordinary physiological damage. Conduits act like a buffer so homunculi don’t become overloaded. It’s a difference of throwing a baby bird out of a nest or an egg at the ground.”

“So she’s an open system?” Ray asks.

“Looks like it,” Ryan agrees. “It’s hard to tell without doing pointlessly risky tests, but it looks like your stone only has one soul in it. That’s generally a good sign that it took the conduit.”

“Okay,” Mica says slowly. “If a closed system homunculus uses its own stone, what do I use? Are Ray and I just- bound?”

“Not exactly,” he answers. “Sustainable homunculi need to be able to draw energy from other sources, usually alchemic energy, which they can’t do if they’re closed systems. Since your conduit took, this means you should be able to allowing the same energy that makes alchemy possibly to flow through you and provide you with the necessary energy to, well, stay alive. If you deplete your stone you’ll be weak but it’ll just recharge naturally over time. As long as it doesn’t actually break, you’re basically immortal.”

“So, she won’t age?” Ray questions. Ryan taps his teeth a little.

“Hard to tell,” he says. “Usually only very specific kinds of Ouroboros homunculus can age but there’s really not enough research to say for certain. The makeup of your body is technically the same as a human but arranged differently. The cell degeneration that causes humans to age aren’t present in you therefore, forever twenty. However, you are still made of components that degrade anyways. If anything, you’re more likely to ‘rot’ or ‘erode’ away in a couple hundred years before you age.”

“You’re such a weird dude,” Ray says. Ryan scoffs.

“I just answered your question,” he insists.

“Why do you know this!” he barks.

“Anyways,” Ryan moves on. “Like I said, you’re one of the most perfect homunculi I’ve ever seen. There’s nothing to worry about.” Mica looks down at her philosopher’s stone mutely, watching it as it softly glows inside of her. A soft rustle startles them both and Mica swiftly covers her stone again. Ray prevents himself from automatically reaching for his pistol.

“Ah,” Edgar moos quietly. “‘m sorry Ms Mica. I didn’t mean to sneak. I wanted to make sure yur okay.” She hurries over quickly, attaching to Ryan’s leg at once and looking up at Mica sheepishly.

“I’m alright, Edgar,” Mica assures her with a little smile. Edgar grins.

“You’re staying here, right?” she asks, wiggling excitedly. Mica blinks in surprise.

“Oh, Edgar,” Ryan says softly.

“Papa doesn’t let anyone into his lab but when he does, they stay here,” she explains. Clearly Geoff and Jack have been down here. Two a pattern does not make but she’s what? Three? Seven? How do chimera work?

“I don’t know if we’d be welcome here, buddy,” Mica says with a small smile.

“You’re always welcome here,” Ryan assures.

“I- Really?” she asks, surprised if nothing else. Edgar climbs up into Ryan’s lap to see better and grabs his tattooed hand in her tiny one.

“Of course. There’s not exactly a lot of places homunculi are welcome,” he says and he turns to Ray mildly. “Or dead state alchemists. I doubt there’s anything here for the two of you, but you’re welcome to stay.”

“Oh. Uh. Thanks Haywood,” Mica says awkwardly. “We’re not really sure what to do next so, we’ll probably take you up on that offer for now.”

“Yeah!” Edgar says excitedly. “Oh! I gotta-!” she urgently squirms back down to the floor and gallops off again. Ray watches her go. This is definitely going to be weird. That being said, where else would they go.

“Hey man, we can’t pay you for this,” Ray mentions. “We don’t have anything.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Ryan assures.

“We’re not doin’ shit for you either,” Ray points out. “Pimpin’ or whatever.”

“Not sure why that’s the first place you went but okay,” Ryan answers. “You can just stay here, you know. You both deserve a safe place to live. I don’t need anything from you for that.”

“Yeah right,” Ray snorts. Either Ryan just coincidentally landed himself with a house full of freaks or he’s been experimenting and one of those things sounds way more likely than the other. He’s not getting pity points from Ray just because he’s cute with a cute daughter.

“Anyways, if you need it, Jack can make you some automail,” Ryan offers. “She’ll insist anyways so, just be prepared for that.”

“Nah, I got an arm already,” Ray assures. “Heavy.”

“Sure,” Ryan agrees before he turns back to Mica. “If you ever start feeling bad, let me know. There’s only so much we know about homunculi but I’ll try to help you as best I can, alright?”

“Yeah,” Mica says. “Thanks again. You are weird as fuck but that’s okay.”

“I’m not weird!”

\- x -

Michael rolls his shoulders as he tries restlessly to set them properly again. Figures the one time they really need that doctor he’s away on ‘business’. They’ve patched Michael up as best they can with what they have which, fortunately, is pretty good. This isn’t the first time they’ll have to or the last for that matter.

Lindsay flicks her finger against the side of a plate, setting a fire in the middle of it, then putting it out, then setting fire to it again as she reads. They got a good assortment of files from that lab but considering the lab is nothing more than rubble now, it’s not all together useful. Of course, there’s no word on what happened to the homunculus in there or the chimera for that matter, but the news reports everyone’s dead. Somehow Michael doubts that.

“Anything useful?” he murmurs. Lindsay makes an irritable sigh.

“Nothing we didn’t already know,” she answers. “They were mass producing homunculi trying to get a perfect one and when they did, they killed the rest to reclaim their philosopher stones. I didn’t get any files on the homunculus but it sounds like they were _stupidly_ strong.”

“So like most homunculi,” Michael says. He grunts mildly as he gets to his feet, wandering across their tiny living space in order to sit with her and make them something to eat.

“I don’t know,” she says. “It looks like they were intending to either mass produce this one or make another probably with less flaws. They were trying to get funds for something.” Michael pulls her plate of fire towards him and sets their little pan over top of it, sitting back while it heats.

“And the chimera?” he asks.

“Most of them were from other labs. ‘Failed’ experiments in trying to make one perfect. They were being turned into philosopher stones at an alarming rate,” Lindsay explains, irritably rubbing her temple.

“So basically, we have no idea what happened to this powerful homunculus except that it probably murdered everything and escaped and also all the chimera we tried to help are probably dead or being transported somewhere worse,” Michael says as he cracks a pair of eggs into the pan.

“Basically,” Lindsay agrees.

“Great,” Michael scoffs sarcastically. “We’ve boned things before but this is a new low.”

“The military is wising up,” Lindsay sighs. “And FAKEs are becoming few and far between. We can only do so much alone.”

“Yeah,” Michael agrees begrudgingly. They used to have a network of people ready to help, both on the inside and on the street, but they started disappearing. Found out or given up or just dead.

“We don’t have people like the Vagabond anymore,” Lindsay murmurs. Michael rolls his eyes. The mythical ‘one man army’. As a non alchemist, that sounds pretty hard to believe. That being said, Michael doesn’t doubt someone like that existed and probably did a lot of good- just that they didn’t single handed wipe out an entire military operation.

“Yeah, well, hard to recruit people without giving ourselves away,” Michael says. Lindsay sighs in agreement. The worst part is, recruiting people usually brings in very young, impressionable teens and young adults. It’s not a bad thing but the fact that the military will seek out and murder FAKEs in cold blood is. They can’t recruit young, stupid people with a good conscious.

“Well,” Lindsay says, picking a bit of crispy edge out of the pan with her fingers. Michael smacks her hand away a bit too late and she sticks her tongue at him. “I’ll get to copying these and shipping them out. Hopefully someone can make good use of them.” There are few news places that will publish anything against the military anymore. People are conditioned to not like the truth. They can only hope that it’ll reach a FAKE somewhere else who can use the information actively.

“And the stone?” Michael asks. Lindsay pulls it out of her pocket and they both look at it. With a philosopher’s stone, Lindsay could easily make sure nothing like this ever happened again. They can’t, though, and she won’t. After all, what could a person reasonably use a human soul for besides making another person?

“Heavy,” she murmurs. “Very heavy.” Michael takes his hand off to hand to her and she unwraps the philosopher’s stone hidden inside of it. They never meant to start collecting these things but what else are they supposed to do? They can’t use them and they can’t make homunculi but they can’t give them to anyone else, either. Lindsay merges the new stone with the one they already have and then wraps Michael’s hand back around it before handing it back.

He’s lost count of how many stones they’ve collected now let alone how many souls are inside. If they could find someone capable of making proper homunculi, they’d gladly hand it over but people like that are hard to come by for more reasons than one.

It’s hard to bare such a weight but if they help, just a little, keep some pressure off of homunculi and chimera then that’s okay.

“Do us a favor and use that bullshit alchemy of yours to make us some toast.”

“Oh, I’m sorry I forgot you can’t figure out how to use a toaster. Should I show you how to wipe your own ass, too?”

Michael leans in to kiss her fondly.

\- x -

“To the hole!” Ryan calls and begrudgingly, everyone makes their way off to the hiding spot. Edgar has to hide because people might try to take her away, Jack and Ray have to hide because they’re supposed to be dead, and Mica has to hide because she’s a homunculus. Geoff specifically needs to _not_ hide. If someone comes looking for him thinking Ryan murdered him, they need to know Geoff is alright and that it definitely wasn’t Ryan that cut off his legs.

Fortunately, the hidden space under the floorboards in the in Edgar’s room is large enough to fit them all if not a bit snug. It was intended for Edgar only and she can open and close it at will with her alchemy. She doesn’t mind sharing. She’s a good little bean.

Geoff glances out the window curiously as Ryan heads downstairs. The two figures that enter the gate look odd but certainly not state military. In fact, since Geoff’s been here he hasn’t seen any military come by despite the entire reason he even came here in the first place was because Ryan was supposedly murdering a lot of them. He’s wisely never brought the subject up.

One of the figures wears a long, cloak like robe and the other is dressed like a normal person. Perhaps military haven’t shown up because they’ve outsourced their problem. With everything Geoff knows about the military, hiring mercenaries wouldn’t surprise him. Ryan preps his little circle of the side table as usual and waits for them to knock.

They never do. Ryan looks at Geoff who looks back out the window. The cloaked figure is sitting in the grass, eating it, and the other one is just standing aside watching. Geoff shrugs. Well this is weird. Ryan cracks the door open to see for himself. They don’t notice him at all so he speaks up.

“Why are you on my lawn,” Ryan calls, startling the pair of them.

“S-sorry!” one yelps. The other looks at Ryan curiously. “I didn’t know-”

“You walked through my fence,” Ryan points out. The cloaked figure sweats nervously.

“We’re leaving! It’s okay!” they assure.

“Armadillo,” Ryan says and the figure lets out a surprised ‘ _hap_ ’. A chimera? How can he tell from here? “Will you come here, please?” The last thing they need is to be yelling across the yard where anyone could hear. Awkwardly, the figure pads over and the other follows, stilling looking curiously confused.

“Why are you in my yard?” Ryan asks again.

“We were just passing through,” the other says. “We’re lookin’ for someone.”

“The grass and flowers smelled really good I’m so sorry,” the first apologises again.

“That’s my daughter’s,” Ryan says.

“ _I’m so sorry,_ ” he repeats for a third time.

“Do you want something real to eat?” Ryan asks. Geoff can’t tell from where he is but he’s going to go ahead and guess this guy is a chimera. Ryan wouldn’t be so nice to anyone else right off the bat.

“Uh,” comes the unsure reply.

“My daughter is a chimera, too,” Ryan murmurs softly.

“Ah! Really? I-” he begins.

“And there’s another homunculus living here, too,” he adds. A chimera _and_ a homunculus? Geoff isn’t sure if he’s surprised or not. How does Ryan just stumble upon people like this?

“A homunculus?” the other repeats urgently.

“Please, come in,” Ryan says, gesturing them into the house. They quickly hurry in, remaining huddled together cautiously. Geoff peers over to get a better look at them. Alright, one of them is definitely visibly a chimera. He’s still not sure how Ryan saw from that distance but who knows. The other looks like a normal dude. Of course, Mica’s a homunculus too and she looks absolutely normal.

“I’m Ryan Haywood,” he introduces himself and offers his hand to shake. They each take it, both seemingly trying to scrutinize him without being noticed and failing. Ryan doesn’t mind it. “I collect alchemic study.”

“Are you- a state alchemist?” one asks wearily.

“Absolutely not,” Ryan scoffs back, deeply insulted by the very idea. This does relieve some of their concern.

“I’m Jeremy,” the chimera introduces himself.

“I’m Gavin!” the homunculus says pleasantly.

“This is Geoff,” Ryan introduces as he motions to him. “He used to be a state alchemist.” Both of them bristle. Alright, Geoff kind of wishes Ryan would stop introducing him like that. He has other traits! Surprisingly enough, Jeremy actually tries to lunge at him. Gavin easily halts him by grabbing the back of his shirt.

“Jeremy wait!” he yips.

“Geoff won’t hurt you,” Ryan promises. Jeremy squirms unhappily, trying to free himself with little luck. This is only to be expected really. If Jeremy came from a lab he surely doesn’t connect Geoff with any positive experiences. Geoff makes no reaction. He doesn’t want to aggravate the kid further.

“And if he does?” Jeremy barks irritably.

“I’ll kill him,” Ryan says without hesitation. Jeremy jolts a little, perhaps not expecting such a straightforward, hard answer. He settles down a little, looking at Ryan out the corner of his eye unsurely. “Geoff knows this.”

“Alright, I am in the room you know,” Geoff scoffs. He has no interest in hurting anyone. Not anymore.

“You know this,” Ryan repeats. Geoff does. He never needed to be told that. Ryan turns to look down the hall where the others have curiously come out of their hiding place to see what’s going on. Obviously they overheard something. The hiding place doesn’t mean much if they won’t stay in it. Ryan motions her over and Edgar comes running to his side. She stops just short of having him pick her up again, caught off guard by Jeremy.

She and Jeremy both stare at each other for a few seconds, perhaps equally as surprised and startled by the other. Edgar lights up. She grabs Jeremy’s hand immediately in both of hers.

“I’m Edgar! You’re a chimera, too!” she says eagerly. “I’m a cow!”

“Yeah!” Jeremy answers excitedly. “I’m an armadillo!”

“What’s an armadillo?” Edgar asks curiously.

“I have no idea!” Jeremy says.

“Would you like some tea, Mr Jeremy?” she offers.

“Yeah!” he agrees immediately. Edgar bolts off again. Everyone has to have tea.

“I’m Gavin!” Gavin calls after her. “I’d love some tea, too!”

“Sorry about her,” Ryan says softly. “She’s never seen another chimera before. That’s my daughter.”

“I-” Jeremy looks absolutely stunned. “She’s so happy.”

“This is Jack,” Ryan introduces and Jack waves sheepishly. “She’s soul bound to this body.”

“Nice to meet you two,” Jack says, smiling at them. Gavin waves back happily.

“That’s Mica,” Ryan goes on. “She’s a homunculus, too.” Much like Edgar, Gavin immediately lights up. He hops up on his toes but holds himself back much better. He obviously doesn’t know what to say.

“Hey,” Mica greets them softly.

“And that’s Ray,” Ryan says. “Also an ex-state alchemist.” Neither of them care nearly as much about this as they did about Geoff. Of course, that’s mostly because they’re too distracted about meeting people like them, now. Gavin awkwardly moves over to greet Mica more appropriate before realising he’s not sure how to go about this. She offers her hand which he shakes perhaps too enthusiastically.

“I’ve never even _seen_ another homunculus before,” he tells her excitedly.

“Yeah, me either,” Mica agrees. She seems far less impressed about this but obviously still a little curious. Edgar comes running back with her tea pot, hurriedly grabbing Jeremy’s hand to pull him into the living room. Geoff quickly rolls out of the way before he’s bowled over.

“Papa has lots of books! Maybe one of them know what a armadillo is!” she states matter-of-factly. “You have very pretty fur, Mr. Jeremy!”

“Oh. Thank you! So do you, Edgar!” Jeremy replies happily. “You’re better brushed than me.”

“ _Oh_. I’ll go get my brushes!” and like that, Edgar takes off again.

“Not really?” Mica says sheepishly. “Ray and I immediately escaped so I didn’t really stay in the lab long. I don’t remember anyone else being there?”

“You just left?” Gavin questions curiously.

“Yeah. I mean, I murdered everyone there, but yeah,” she assures.

“So they, uh, could have been nice?” Gavin asks.

“No,” Ray answers immediately. “They weren’t nice.”

“That’s good!” Gavin chirps. “It’s not! Not like that! Just- haha I’m glad they’re just mean and it wasn’t my fault.”

“Oh god no,” Mica says. “State alchemists are the worst. I mean, look at Ray.” Ray shrugs. “Will you let go of me now?” Gavin hurriedly released her hand, blushing nervously.

“Sorry,” he murmurs.

“Jeremy,” Ryan calls. Jeremy perks up to look at him again. “Would you still like something to eat?”

“Yes please,” Jeremy agrees. “Thank you.”

“Gavin,” Ryan turns to him next before he can rattle off another question. “Do you eat?”

“Um, can I?” Gavin asks curiously. “I’ve never-?”

“Would you like to try?” he offers. Gavin instinctively looks to Mica for help. She shrugs at him.

“P-please!” Gavin agrees. Ryan nods and he heads off, again, to make their guests food. Ray gives Geoff a mild look. This is a look that very clearly says he absolutely does not believe these two people just randomly happened to find their way here. He keeps thinking Ryan is up to something nefarious. With all the research and him spending so much time in his lab and his chimera daughter, it’s easy to see why.

No, Ryan’s just like this. Dangerous, certainly, Geoff and Ray and even Jack are on very thin lines when it comes to them having worked for the military, but Geoff doesn’t think Ryan to be malicious for the sake of being malicious.

That being said, Geoff still has no idea what Ryan _used_ to be. A researcher all his life? What would a researcher need explosive alchemy tattoos for? Those are not for self defense.

People change.

\- x -

Ryan squints his eyes closed against the noise outside. What on earth? Edgar curls against him tighter, pulling her ears down against her head to try to shut some of it out. It’s fucking before dawn what the fuck? Ryan climbs out of bed and swings the window open, looking around for the source of the noise. He’s had to start sharing his daughter’s bed because Geoff and Jack are sleeping in his bed, Mica and Ray are sleeping in the guest room, Jeremy sleeps on the couch in the living room, and Gavin is up all the time reading in his library.

Irritably, Ryan prowls around his house to find the source. His trigger didn’t go off so no one entered the yard. That means one of these assholes are doing something. Ryan’s getting ready to kick the lot of them out into the town. There’s just people all over his house all the time now. He needs some fucking space.

Ryan throws open the kitchen window to find Jack outside in the dim morning with wood and tools. He looks over what she’s doing, alchemizing the materials she needs out of some trees she’s obviously cut down. Then he looks up at the side of his house that she seems to have ripped everything off of.

“Jack,” Ryan says irritably, “What the _fuck_ have you done to my house?” Jack turns to look at him curiously.

“Did I wake you?” she asks. “Sorry. I forget some of you sleep.”

“Yes you woke me!” he snaps back. “Why else would I be awake at fuck all o’clock!”

“I think it’s nice out here,” Jack murmurs. “I’m building an extension to the house. There’s not enough room for all of us. I didn’t think you’d mind.” Ryan is more annoyed that the lot of them have apparently decided they’re staying here extensively. Sure, Ryan kind of offered in most cases but he figured they’d stay long enough to get their own homes, not move into his. He sighs irritably, rubbing the bridge of his nose in his fingers.

It makes Edgar happy, having them all here. She’s never had a family besides Ryan before and obviously she’s adopted them all as her weird family.

“I’m going to need you to do this not in the middle of the night,” Ryan says shortly. “I get that you’re bored but I will drop you in the middle of a lake.”

“It’s morning,” Jack replies rather irritably herself.

“There is a house full of people that would disagree with you, Jack,” he snips.

“ _Fine_. It’ll take longer but whatever.” She drops the lumber she’s working with to prove she’s willing to wait a little longer to go back to work. Ryan gives her an annoyed look as he snaps the window closed again.

“Fuckin’ state alchemist, just building wherever they want. I made this house. Fuckin’ four am ‘morning’. I don’t think so.”


	7. Keeping Up With The Haywoods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fool’s gold and a fool’s friend. Ryan completes his collection. [probably as creepy as it sounds]

Geoff shouts.

Of course, Ryan immediately cringes irritably and stops what he’s doing to look at Geoff.

“What are you doing, Ryan?” Geoff demands.

“Getting ready to go shopping?” Ryan replies mildly.

“You can’t alchemize gold, Ryan!” Geoff says loudly. “That’s like the first rule of alchemy!”

“No,” he says. “Alchemy has no rules. The _military_ has rules and I’m pretty sure the first rule of military alchemy is don’t transmute humans so.” That’s different and he knows it!

“Ryan,” Geoff repeats firmly. “You can’t spend alchemized gold. Do you know how badly something like that could inflate the economy?”

“Yeah, that’s sort of the point,” Ryan answers as he clearly starts getting irritated with this conversation. He turns back to continue his human printing press of an alchemy circle.

“What? Ryan-” Geoff begins hastily. He obviously doesn’t understand.

“I can do alchemy,” Ryan says. “You can do alchemy. _Jack_ can do alchemy. It literally takes my daughter zero effort to alchemize herself a toy- or a snack or whatever else she wants. An economy is _pointless_. Perhaps if the military stopped wasting its efforts on shitty science and aggressive power plays, they could actually use their alchemist to help the people they claim to protect.”

“It’s not that simple, Ryan,” he growls. “You can’t just go around alchemizing everything for everyone.”

“Why? Because it’s easier to destroy? Because you don’t _want_ to?” Ryan asks scathingly. “A gold based economy is unsustainable and unnecessary as long as there are alchemists. It was instilled by the military to support class differences and further oppression giving them a scapegoat to their shit war and allowing their ‘ethics’ to go unquestioned.”

“You sound like a fucking FAKE,” Geoff sneers. Ryan doesn’t reply but by the look he gives Geoff over his shoulder, he doesn’t need to. “Ryan! They’re trying to destroy this country!”

“That’s the flow of alchemy, isn’t it?” Ryan replies scathingly. “To recreate something, you have to destroy it.”

“Do you want people to die?” Geoff asks. “Because that’s what they want! That’s what they _do_.”

“You don’t mean _people_ ,” Ryan barks back. “You mean _humans_. Chimera die every day. Thousands of them died just to make Gavin. Hell, some of them were killed just because they _could_ be. _Homunculi_ die all the time. Or do they just not matter as much to you? You have no idea what the FAKEs want or what they do for that matter.”

“I’ve seen what they do,” Geoff replies firmly. “You can help chimera without killing people.”

“Without killing _humans_?” Ryan corrects with a bitter bite. “No. You can’t. You’ve seen what the FAKE do? I’ve seen what the _military_ does. The only thing that stops them is death.”

“You’re talking about mass murder,” Geoff says.

“I’m talking about a renaissance,” Ryan answers. This is not a topic they’re going to see eye to eye on, clearly. Geoff knows Ryan cares a lot about other chimera and homunculi even but the FAKEs- that’s not the way to go about things. All they want is chaos and anarchy and they hurt whoever they want, when they want.

“I know where your ideals sit, Thousand Pound Bite,” Ryan assures with nothing but spite. A pang hits Geoff’s heart. Just because he used to be a state alchemist doesn’t mean he believes in the military. They’ve done bad things and he knows it but the answer isn’t to try to get rid of them completely- the answer to murder isn’t more murder.

“Just,” Geoff says between clenched teeth. “Tell me the truth. Edgar, did you-”

“Did I what?” Ryan cuts him off sharply. “Did I make her a chimera? Or perhaps you think I ‘kidnapped’ her from a lab? Which would make you feel better, Ramsey?” Geoff stares at the floor, angry and upset. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I’ll tell you this one more time. My late husband is responsible for turning my daughter into a chimera then he paid the price for it with his life.”

“That’s all I wanted to know,” Geoff murmurs. Ryan comes closer to him though and he looks away begrudgingly.

“Know this, too,” he says a bit calmer and quieter now which is somehow way worse. “I was _never_ angry at him for changing her. There’s _nothing_ wrong with being a chimera. I was angry because she never got a say in the matter. I was angry because he used untested alchemy on a child knowing full well what the risks were- and now Edgar has to live with the consequences of those risks for the rest of her life. I killed him because he proved himself no better than a state alchemist.”

“Ryan,” Geoff says.

“And if you ever suggest that I would ever put Edgar’s well being in risk like that- if I’d ever put _any_ child’s well being- _any infant’s_ \- again, then you’ll have to find a different place to live. Do you understand?” Ryan asks. Geoff nods. No, he never meant to suggest that.

“Yeah,” he says softly. “Yeah, I do.” Ryan stares at him a moment before returning to his work. He gathers up the gold he’s made and fills his little pouch with it. They could argue about this all day but Ryan’s stubborn- apparently so is Geoff.

“Edgar,” Ryan calls. Edgar jumps a little, peering out from where she and everyone else in the house had come to see what was going on. She looks at her dad sheepishly and the others disburse back to what they were doing hastily. “Are you ready to go?”

“Ah, yes papa,” Edgar agrees, coming to his side at once and latching onto his arm. She looks at Geoff almost unsurely as Ryan picks her up. That was probably a lot for her to overhear though admittedly, Ryan is pretty open and honest with her about everything. He knows she’s never fully trusted him, either. In fact, she only really trusts and relies on her father. It’s easy to see why when most of the people she’s known have not been good to her.

Geoff doesn’t want to hurt them.

\- x -

In all honesty, there’s not a ton of reasons to ever go into town. Ryan can support even the numerous new additions to his household with just his alchemy. Being a bio alchemist comes with the side benefit of knowing how to fix up food from just about anything plus being a great gardener. That aside, one of them can’t eat, two of them don’t need to eat, two of them would be happy just eating grass, and Geoff can make his own food if he’s that fed up with fruits and vegetables.

Edgar’s at minimum half cow, the only meat she eats are bugs and generally only because they’re on her flowers and she doesn’t see shockingly well. They’ve been mostly vegetarian for years and that’s not changing anytime soon, that’s for sure.

Nonetheless, Ryan likes taking Edgar out for a shopping trip now and again. He can’t have people see her so they travel around with the cart he made for her. She can see out but people can’t see in. She can talk to him without other people hearing though he can’t always talk back. People already think he’s weird, he doesn’t need them thinking he talks to his shopping cart. Edgar is used to this by now, though, and she understands. She’s a good bean.

Ryan can make anything they need with alchemy, of course, but that doesn’t take away the desire for other things. Sometimes it’s just nice to buy a nice bowl or a jar of honey or a new dress. People like Geoff don’t understand that. They think as soon as you give a person everything they need, they’ll stop working. He claims to be concerned about other humans but he doesn’t even respect them. Not that Ryan expected much from a state alchemist, ex or otherwise.

He tries not to think about it too much. With all the people living in his house now, he doesn’t get nearly as much quality time to spend with his daughter. Previously he’d never allow anyone else in his lab aside from her for a variety of reasons but lately, Ray has been hanging out a lot. Ray is an incredible alchemist, even though Ryan’s never actually seen him perform alchemy, and the two of them sharing study is beneficial to them both.

Likewise, Gavin is typically always in his library. The lad has been busying himself with reading everything he can get his hands on. He wants to know badly what he is and _how_ he is- and everything else. Jeremy is usually in the yard, Geoff loiters in the living room, Mica hangs out in Edgar’s room with the radio, and Jack spends her time either fixing or building stuff. There are too many people in Ryan’s house.

“Oh! Papa! One of those please? I love those!” Edgar asks excitedly. Ryan knows immediately what she’s talking about; funnel cake. Of course. He buys one and hands it to her inside the cart to munch on. They’ve done this so frequently, he’s well trained in sneaking her food without anyone noticing. Edgar hums happily as she eats and Ryan continues his shopping. Normally he doesn’t buy much but today he feels like being spiteful just for the sake of it.

“Those people are still following us,” Edgar murmurs worriedly. Ryan knows. They’ve been following him for nearly an hour now. He keeps an eye on both of them at all times, ensuring they don’t get too close. It’s not clear what they want. Ryan buys himself a donut to eat on as they wander the town. It doesn’t take long for these people to either become careless or impatient.

One of them stands directly next to him as he browses through some trinkets. As she reaches for something way too close to him, Ryan grabs her by her wrist. She jolts a little as if he hasn’t noticed her this entire time. A pickpocket wouldn’t tail a single person for so long.

“Why are you following me,” Ryan demands quietly.

“You’re sharp, aren’t you?” she replies in amusement. “Didn’t mean to startled you. Just heard some things.” Edgar makes an irritated moo.

“Your friend touches my cart and I’ll blow your arm off,” Ryan warns.

“Is that what those are?” she muses back. “In the middle of town like this?”

“Try me,” he replies. Her buddy backs off. “Stop following me.”

“Is it true you have chimera?” she asks. Ryan lets go of her wrist, giving her a skeptical look before grabbing his cart and walking off again. They follow him but not discreetly anymore, just at a distance. It’ll be easier to deal with them back home. When they get closer to the worn path leading to his home, the two of them walk closer to him. Ryan still can’t tell who they are or what they want. Perhaps the military is outsourcing now? Or maybe they’re just too curious for their own good. Either way, obviously someone saw Jeremy come to his house and never leave.

Ryan waits for them to enter his fence before closing it behind them and heading for the front door.

“So,” she says. “You a state alchemist?”

“Absolutely not,” Ryan answers immediately.

“So you just like playing with people’s lives, do you?” her companion demands and in an instant, he’s at Ryan’s throat with his knife. These definitely aren’t military people. “Where are the chimera?” Ryan lifts his hand to the knife and the guy hesitates before pushing it harder but he doesn’t draw blood. Instead of pushing it away, Ryan shatters it with a immense little explosion. This startles the lad for more reasons than one. That explosion shouldn’t have hurt him except, Ryan realises, the guy’s hand isn’t flesh.

“You’re FAKE,” Ryan murmurs. They both jump away from him, ready for a fight.

“Easy on the name calling, bub,” she says. “He’s sensitive about his hand.”

“No,” Ryan replies flatly. He gestures to the lad’s hand and the red, exposed bit inside of it. “The only people who could have a stone as heavy as that outside of the military are FAKEs.”

“Bit of a leap in logic there, isn’t it?” she says suggestively. Not really. They’re obviously worried he’s torturing chimera or something, they have a very dense philosopher’s stone, and they’re highly trained. There’s not a lot of other explanations for that.

“Edgar,” Ryan calls. They both hastily brace themselves and reach for their weapons. Edgar curiously peeks her head out of the cart and looks at them worriedly. They’re very confused when she runs over to cling to his leg. “This is my daughter, Edgar.”

“Your- daughter?” he murmurs slowly.

“She’s a chimera,” he explains. “My late husband and I used to be FAKEs.”

“You did?” she asks. Ryan holds his hand out to shake.

“I’m Ryan Haywood,” he introduces himself. They both light up eagerly.

“You recreated the Vagabond’s research!” she says at once.

“Dude, that shit helps so much,” he agrees. Ryan rubs the back of his head sheepishly as they take turns repeatedly shaking his hand.

“I didn’t know you were so cute!” she chirps excitedly. “I’m Lindsay Jones!”

“I’m Michael Jones,” he says. Ryan tries to get his hand back from them. Edgar looks up at them curiously and they both look back down at her, blinking just as curiously.

“You’re cute too!” Lindsay assures. Edgar beams happily.

“Hey! They’re alright, guys!” Ryan calls. Michael and Lindsay look back up at the house as heads start poking out of windows to see what’s going on. Ryan looks over his shoulder as the lot of them check out their new guests. “Drunkie down there is Geoff, ex state alchemist. The big one’s Jack, soul bound to an artificial body. The tiny black one’s Mica, an open system homunculus and her tiny buddy is Ray, another ex state alchemist. Nose over there is Gavin, a closed system homunculus and his pink buddy there is Jeremy, an armadillo chimera.”

“What the fuck,” Michael says absently.

“How did you-?” Lindsay murmurs.

“My daughter won’t stop taking in strays,” Ryan answers immediately. “I’m so tired.” Lindsay waves to his houseful of people pleasantly. “Please, come in. I have copies of all the Vagabond’s work, original and redux.” The Jones’ eyes sparkle.

“Ah. I’ll go make some tea!” Edgar says and she hurries inside before them.

“Did you make her?” Lindsay asks with a small smile. “She looks very nice.”

“I birthed her, yes,” Ryan says. “But it wasn’t me that made her a chimera.”

“Did you make the others?” Michael asks.

“No,” he answers simply. “Do me a favor. Keep your philosopher’s stone to yourselves."

“Can do,” Lindsay agrees as she grins. Michael scowls at him a little.

“You’re lucky you’re cute,” he grumbles. Ryan leads them inside to properly greet the others.

“I never saw a lot of siblings agree with one another so well in the FAKEs before,” he mentions off handedly.

“We’re married,” Michael sneers at him.

“Oh,” Ryan replies. “This is awkward.”

\- x -

“Ray,” Michael says.

“Michael,” Ray replies.

“Military thing didn’t work out?” he asks pointedly. Ray doesn’t say anything, not even taking the time to look away from the book he’s into. Michael sneers. “You never fucking change.”

“But you do, don’t you,” Ray murmurs back. “You’re just perfect, aren’t you? Always been better than me. What do you want me to say, Michael? You’re the _best_.” Michael growls even more irritably. This isn’t a conversation either of them will win. So much for trying to see how he’s doing.

“I thought homunculi were a crime against nature?” Michael asks.

“And I thought you weren’t the marrying type,” Ray replies. Michael looks away. “We change how we want to change, don’t we.” This wasn’t what Michael wanted to talk about when he came in here but a part of him knew there was really no other way this conversation would go. He leaves before this ‘conversation’ turns into a full fledged argument- as if Ray ever does that.

“Asshole,” he hears Ray say under his breath.

\- x -

The Vagabond’s work is- expansive. Lindsay knew he had wrote but she never knew it was to this degree. The Vagabond was known for being able to infiltrate military operations all on his own and leaving them in little more than ruin. The books she knows from him are mainly about human transmutation and the weaknesses in military defenses. These books cover- much more. She hasn’t even made a dent in them yet.

Granted, part of that is because she’s comparing Ryan’s redux version to the Vagabond’s original texts. She trusts Ryan’s remake of them, sure, but the possibility that he’s missed something is there. It’s especially there because the Vagabond’s original text is to the point of nonsensical and not in a sort of ‘coded’ way, either. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, only the wild scrawlings and notes of, well, a mad man. How Ryan ever decoded any of this in the first place is absolutely incredible.

Some parts of them are more legible than others, obviously the Vagabond made some decent into madness as time went on. This kind of work, the things he must have seen, Lindsay would understand why. Perhaps that’s why he got caught in the end, executed by state alchemists. That’s how she expects to go, honestly. State alchemists get them all in the end.

Lindsay rubs her temples tiredly as she tries to soothe her forming migraine from trying to read such a garbled mess. This is informative not only strategically, but alchemically. She’s never attempted human transmutation herself, it requires the sort of touch that she’s uncertain she has especially as a flame alchemist, but maybe she does. There are a lot of requirements to making a ‘proper’ homunculus but a specific brand of alchemy is never specified.

That being said, it seems the Vagabond never attempted any kind of human transmutation himself. It’s unclear whether or not he simply didn’t have the materials, there’s no word of him ever having contact with a philosopher’s stone so far, if he simply didn’t think he was capable of it, or if he was just- afraid. Lindsay would like to think that he was simply too busy. It’s not enough to just _create_ a homunculus, a person has to be ready and willing to make sure they can survive and adapt to life on their own.

Lindsay stops what she’s doing, curiously looking over her shoulder at the group of them peering into Ryan’s library. Mica and Edgar and Gavin and Jeremy. She looks back to what she’s doing awkwardly before looking back again. Did she do something?

“Uh,” Lindsay murmurs. “Can I help you?” They all look at each other unsurely.

“Papa says you help lots of chimera and homunculi,” Edgar says, perched on Jeremy’s shoulders to see better. Lindsay’s heart aches at the thought of all the chimera they lost last time.

“Y-yeah,” she agrees. “We do whenever we can. It’s hard sometimes.”

“So there are others?” Gavin asks.

“I’ve only ever seen Gavin,” Mica says.

“And I’ve only ever seen Mica,” Gavin says.

“Papa says there’s lots of chimera but I’ve never seen them,” Edgar says.

“I’ve seen lots of chimera but I’ve only met a few of them,” Jeremy says.

“Oh,” Lindsay murmurs. “Uh. Yeah. There’s a _lot_ of chimera out there. We’ve freed a lot of them over the years so there’s definitely some out there, hopefully living peacefully. There’s still a lot of captive ones too, though, and the military is always making more. There’s less homunculi or at least, less of them like you two.”

“Like us?” Mica asks inquisitively.

“The military makes these kind of ‘husk’ homunculi. They don’t have a will or conscious of their own but they can be produced at an alarming rate,” Lindsay explains. “Homunculi like yourselves are harder to produce and harder to keep alive. Not to mention a lot of times they’re in a lab so long they’re basically mind numbed weapons. It’s hard to bring a homunculus back from that- impossible actually. They never got the chance to develop proper personality structures on their own.” Gavin and Jeremy look at one another worriedly.

“But you help them, right?” Edgar asks. Lindsay smiles a little.

“We try to,” she promises. “It’s hard sometimes and sometimes they don’t want help. We do what we can but- we’re only two people.”

“Papa says I have to get stronger and smarter to help them!” Edgar says eagerly. “He says I gotta know how to make tough choices! Then I can help! It’ll be three of us, then!”

“Your papa’s a smart dude,” Lindsay agrees with a little laugh. “When you’re old enough and strong enough and smart enough, it can be three of us, okay?”

“Yeah!” Edgar wriggles happily, nearly knocking Jeremy over. She’s heavier than she looks- Ryan is a strong man.

“What are you two going to do now?” Jeremy asks. Lindsay looks down at the two books she’s scrounging over then over the shelves that line the room. They’re all Vagabond and FAKE material and there’s more downstairs.

“Well,” she says. “Finish reading all this first. After that, probably get back to work. There’s always something to do.” The four of them look at each other.

“We can help if you want,” Gavin offers. Lindsay blinks in surprise.

“Not like, you know, physically,” Mica assures. “If the state even sees any of us, they’ll probably try to murder us.”

“We can tell you stuff, though,” Jeremy says. “Gav and I know a lot about the place that held us.”

“And Ryan helps me do tests on myself, anyways!” Gavin agrees.

“Ray and I know a lot about their methods, too,” Mica adds in. “Including where to hit them so it hurts.”

“Papa tells me a lot of stories he doesn’t write down!” Edgar offers. “He says it’s important to remember things in case anything ever happens to his research!” Lindsay laughs.

“That’s sweet of you guys,” she says. “Why do you want to help us so bad?”

“The military tortured Jeremy and me for years,” Gavin murmurs. “My stone devoured the souls of chimera like candy just to keep me alive. I can’t- I can’t make up for that.”

“They took me from my family,” Jeremy says. “Made us this way then slaughter us like animals. I watched so many of my friends die.”

“They were going to use me as a weapon,” Mica says. “They took away everything that was precious to Ray so he’d make me and they didn’t even consider for a second that I was anything but a tool.”

“They come here a lot,” Edgar says softly. “Less now with Mr. Geoff around. They say mean things to papa and hurt him. They want to take me away. Papa always takes care of them but-” she trails off. Lindsay smiles sadly.

“I know you guys want to get back at them,” she assures. “I would, too, but you’re free now. It shouldn’t have to be your responsibility to try to prevent what happened to you from happening again. That’s what the FAKEs are for. You can just live happily, and peacefully, and know that the FAKEs will never let anyone take that away from you.” Again, they all exchange looks with one another.

“I can’t take back the souls that made my stone,” Gavin says. “But I can make sure only state military feed it from now on.”

“Given the chance, I’ll break every bone in a state alchemist for what they did to me,” Jeremy says. “Living ‘peacefully’ isn’t for me.”

“I’m literally made of anger and hate because of them,” Mica says. “Hurting military makes me feel alive, quite literally.”

“I gotta protect papa!” Edgar yips. “They won’t stop and neither will I!”

“Well, if you’ve made up your minds,” Lindsay says with another laugh. “I guess I can’t change them.”

We sow the seeds we reap.

\- x -

“Papa?” Edgar asks curiously. Ryan lifts his head from the table tiredly and rubs his face before looking down to her. “Are you alright, papa?”

“I’m fine, sweetie,” Ryan promises and he smiles at her.

“Does your head hurt again, papa?” she questions as she climbs up into a chair beside him. “Should I get Mrs. Jack?”

“No,” Ryan sighs. “It’ll be okay.” Edgar frowns at him and she stands on her chair to pet his head carefully. There’s another loud crash from a different part of the house and he instinctively sighs loudly.

They won’t go home. None of them will go home. He hasn’t had any peace and quiet in weeks.

“Are there too many people, papa?” Edgar asks. Ryan chuckles.

“It’s okay, baby,” he promises. Edgar gets down from her chair and wanders off into another part of the house.

“Hey!” she shouts. “Assholes! You’re giving papa a headache! It’s quiet picnic time outside! And everyone has to use their inside voices or Mr. Oinkins is gonna be really mad! That means you, too, Mr. Michael!”

Ryan laughs to himself. That’s his daughter alright. He really is glad she’s found a family to love her even if it’s six dads and three moms like some kind of parent hoarding cow. It’ll just take some time to get used to is all, for all of them. Jack’s still building new rooms to sustain everyone, after all. Once they all have some privacy of their own, everything should settle down.

That being said, he does now live with two chimera, two homunculi, two ex state alchemists, two FAKE members, and a living doll. Ryan’s really not sure what he’s expecting.

He supposes he’s happy, too.

A part of him is waiting for the bite. 


	8. Sandbags

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Settle in, hang tight, there’s gonna be a storm tonight.

Geoff nurses his whiskey by the fire quietly. It’s times like these he misses drinking with Jack. He’d never tell her that, of course. It’s his fault she died and it’s his fault she’s- whatever she is now. He couldn’t bare to unintentionally make her feel guilty about anything else.

Gavin drinks with him sometimes but he can’t really get drunk. Same goes for Mica who, admittedly, tends to be less interested in amusing him with sharing a drink. Jeremy drinks but likewise, it takes him a couple bottles to even get buzzed. He often laments about how he used to love drinking and how being a chimera has made it hard to enjoy it anymore. Ray and Ryan don’t touch the stuff to the point where if Geoff’s going at it a little too long or too quick, Ryan will start to give him dirty looks.

The Jones’ drink. They’re the only other ‘normal’ ones around here. Geoff enjoys drinking with them, too, but after a while it’s obvious they enjoy one another’s company more than his and he just feels lonely again. Having Jack back is more than he ever could have hoped for but- it’s hard to look at her sometimes knowing what he did.

She would have been better off if he never had bothered her.

The small explosion gets Geoff’s attention immediately and sobers him up quickly. He looks around to find where Edgar’s startled little ‘moo’ has come from to find her still where she had been, sitting at the coffee table practicing her alchemy. Geoff was supposed to be watching her but Edgar typically won’t practice alchemy she’s unsure of under anyone’s watch but her father’s- probably for this reason exactly. He hurriedly rolls to her side.

“Edgar, are you alright?” he asks. Edgar wipes some soot from her face, blinking a bit as she tries to process what just happened. She nods. He looks her over for injury but she doesn’t seem to have hurt herself at all.

“I’m alright, daddy,” she murmurs. He looks at the circle she’s made.

“You’re not supposed to use alchemy like this on solid surfaces, Edgar,” he says. He pauses. “Did you just call me ‘daddy’?” That’s a new one. Of course she’s taken a liking to Jeremy and will occasionally refer to him as ‘uncle’ but otherwise, it’s Mr and Ms for everyone. Edgar jolts in surprise and her face turns a dark shade of red.

“No!” she moos in panic.

“It’s alright,” Geoff assures. “I don’t mind.”

“No!” Edgar yelps even louder. She instinctively hits him in the stomach, something that would be less bothersome if she wasn’t a super strong chimera child, and Geoff doubles over. Edgar hops to her feet urgently and bolts out of the room. “Sorry Mr. Geoff!” she yells as she goes.

That kid’s too strong for her own good.

\- x -

Ray sits in the shade to read while Jack chops wood. She’s typically pretty quiet and they get along well enough that they never bother each other. That being said, something is obviously on her mind today and she keeps pausing to look at him but hasn’t said anything yet. She rips another log in two with her bare hands.

“Hey Ray,” she finally says quietly.

“Huh,” he replies.

“Do you remember what you saw in the Gate?” she asks. Ray stops his reading to look at her and she looks back. He’s been asked before, mainly by Ryan for his research, of which Ray honestly diverged as much as he could. Ryan’s research is a good cause even if it’s not one Ray strictly believes in himself.

“Some of it,” he says. “Why?”

“Geoff doesn’t remember anything,” Jack murmurs, looking back down at the pile of wood she’s made. “Repressed them, I guess. Ryan says he was babbling something about the Gate before he passed out but after he woke up, he didn’t even recall seeing it.”

“Okay,” Ray says. “So?”

“I remember some,” she says. This, however, is surprising.

“You remember seeing the Gate,” he repeats. She nods.

“And what’s inside,” she assures. “I can’t really- make sense of what I remember but I do remember it. It was a lot.”

“Why do you remember the Gate?” Ray asks skeptically. “You shouldn’t-”

“I think I performed human transmutation,” Jack says without skipping a beat. “Or tried to, at least. I think it’s what killed me. I mean, they said they never found my body and- and how could Geoff have soul bound me, otherwise?” Ray isn’t sure what to do with this. She should be telling Ryan this, not him. He doesn’t know what this means or how that would even work or if that’s even possible.

“Why are you telling me this?” Ray asks. Jack looks at him again.

“I think I’m remembering,” she says. “Who I really am. I think I really am Jack Pattillo.”

“Okay,” Ray repeats. “I don’t fuckin’ know you, dude.”

“No, I know,” she murmurs. “I just- I think I know the key to perfect human transmutation.” Ray is quiet. He understands now. What he saw beyond the Gate he can’t really piece together properly but he _knows_ he knows. It’s there, blurry and scattered, but there. They’re not meant to know.

“Sorry, I just,” Jack says and she sighs deeply. “Sorry. I thought maybe you remembered more than me.”

“The Gate isn’t supposed to tell us the answers,” Ray murmurs. “It’s supposed to make us want to look for them.”

“Yeah, Ryan told me that, too,” she replies in disappointment.

“Bunch of bullshit,” Ray says. Jack nods in agreement.

\- x -

Gavin looks back at Lindsay before looking back at Michael again, the two of them having taken a break from cleaning Ryan’s study to have a sit out in the nice, cool yard. Fairly, Gavin’s not sure why he’s cleaning, Michael’s the one that tackled him into a bookshelf. That being said, Ryan is scary when he wants to be.

“So, you and Lindsay,” Gavin murmurs. Michael stops fixing his hand to look back at her as well. She and Jeremy are play wrestling in the grass by which that means she has Jeremy in a headlock and he’s making loud armadillo noises. Edgar runs around their feet, mooing loudly and trying to help him get free. They’re quite cute, really.

“What about us?” Michael sneers back.

“Just interesting is all,” Gavin assures with a grin. “You and her have a lot in common. I can see why you two are together.” Michael gives him an irritated look. “As opposed to Geoff and Jack. They fight alot and not playful fight like you and Lindsay. I’m not sure I understand.”

“Do you ever mind your own business?” Michael scoffs at him.

“Well, sometimes,” Gavin answers. “I thought people only got married when they like each other. Obviously that’s not true. Ryan says he didn’t like his husband. Ray and Mica like each other but they’re not married.”

“Idiot,” Michael says. “People are more complicated than that.”

“Yeah, I’m realising that,” Gavin replies bemusedly. “Jeremy is odd. He is very mean and will seek out unrelated military men to murder for no other reason than because he can but-” he looks back to Jeremy curled into a tight, protective ball and Lindsay and Edgar curiously poking at his hard shell. “He changes very quickly. He gets along well with Ray and doesn’t mind Jack and Geoff too much. Sometimes he looks at Ryan like you look at Lindsay.”

“People are complicated,” Michael gruffs. “You’re not gonna figure them out so just stop before you hurt yourself.”

“Mm,” Gavin hums in reply. “Everyone seems to like Ryan. He’s strange and yet, no one minds that much. Sometimes you and Lindsay look at him like you look at each other.”

“No we don’t,” Michael sneers at him.

“Jeremy says that, too,” Gavin says. “Everyone says that. If you all like him, it works out, dunnit? I don’t see what the problem is.”

“Yeah?” Michael says sarcastically. “If you’re so perceptive then, who does Ryan like?”

“I- hm,” Gavin murmurs. Honestly, Ryan looks at his research like they look at him. Edgar, of course, but that’s different. They look at Ryan like he’s the sun. Ryan looks at Edgar like she’s his world. Gavin isn’t quite sure what the difference is but he can make the assumption that it’s because Edgar is his daughter; Ryan made her. This assumption kind of falls through, however, since Ray doesn’t look at Mica like that and similarly, the man that created Gavin never looked at him like that.

“Exactly, dumbass,” Michael scoffs. “He’s not interested so leave him be.”

“Oh,” he says curiously. He frowns a little. “I guess you’re right. How do you get someone to like you?” Michael sighs loudly.

“Not by asking me a thousand fucking question, I’ll fuckin’ tell you that,” he assures. Gavin pouts unhappily.

“Humans are very inefficient,” he grumbles.

“No shit,” Michael murmurs.

\- x -

Ryan alternates between looking through his glasses and over his glasses as he sketches Mica’s philosopher’s stone into one of his books. They come in many shapes and sizes, he’s explained and he’s shown her some of the other sketches he has. Many of them are just sort of round or oval. Gavin’s is a strange shape, however, almost matching one of the symbols on his back.

Mica’s is a little more ‘traditional’, being shaped more like a hard cut gemstone. Ryan likes it.

“Your stone doesn’t seem to deplete as much when you expose it,” Ryan notes as he peers into her chest cavity again. “Gavin can’t even expose his stone for very long before his body covers it up again.”

“Is there- a reason for that?” she asks curiously.

“Well, homunculi usually possess an extra ‘ability’ regardless of how they were created. Gavin can obviously manipulate time at great expense to himself. Do you know what you can do?” he questions. Mica has to think about it for a few moments.

“Not really. I don’t think I can do anything like that,” she admits. She’s never really tried but she’s never really needed to, either. Between her strength and her speed that all homunculi have, she can handle any issue that comes at her. Gavin has proven he can too but he’s not as used to having to fight for himself; Jeremy usually swoops in to protect him.

“When did you colour your hair, Mica?” Ryan asks. Mica touches the ends of her curls gently before tossing her head back and fluffing her hair out. She shrugs a bit.

“Recently,” she murmurs. “Do you like it?”

“I do,” Ryan agrees. “How did you do it?” Mica didn’t honestly think about it all that much. She just kind of did it. “I’m not sure you’re a human based homunculus, Mica.”

“What else would I be?” Mica asks curiously.

“I noticed when you first arrived,” he says. “Between you and Ray, there was something off about you. As you’ve stayed here, it’s gone away. I assume you instinctively changed to fit in with us.”

“I don’t think I did anything?” Mica assures. She wonders, however, how people could tell she was a homunculus sometimes.

“Ray said it himself, he never intended to make a person,” Ryan points out. It’s true. Ray just wanted to make something to kill everyone in the facility. He definitely succeeded in that. “I think you can shape shift. You must have randomly generated yourself an appearance when you first formed. That would explain why you’re such a perfect example of a homunculi.”

“So I’m- what exactly?” Mica asks again.

“A homunculus still,” he assures. “Just not strictly human based. Which, honestly, makes sense. It’s easier to make an open system homunculus without a human base. It doesn’t change anything, really, you just can change your appearance at will.” Mica glances down at her hands and after a moment, her nails shift colours. Yeah, she can see that.

“Cool,” she murmurs. “ Does that drain my stone?”

“At the extent that you use it? Not significantly,” he promises. Mica closes the cavity in her chest up and he pushes his glasses up. “It’s good to know whatever you can about yourself. Homunculi are still so under studied, it’ll be hard to help you if something unexpected turns up.”

“Yeah,” she replies quietly. Honestly, there isn’t much that concerns her. As far as anyone here is aware, the only thing that will truly be an issue for her is her stone breaking and that is a very, very difficult thing to do. Beyond that, at most she’ll just get tired for a while and even then, only under very extreme circumstances.

“Something wrong?” Ryan asks.

“I don’t feel like a human,” Mica murmurs.

“You’re not,” he replies. “You’re a _person_ , but a homunculus person. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“But I was made with human transmutation,” she points out. “So I’m just a failed human, really.”

“Absolutely not,” Ryan scoffs. “‘Human transmutation’ is a term coined by the military specifically to prevent people from attempting it. Unfortunately it holds tight because telling people not to try making homunculus willy nilly doesn’t stop them nearly as much.”

“I guess,” Mica says. “It’s not possible for a homunculus to become a human, is it?” Ryan frowns at her sadly.

“No,” he replies without hesitation. “But you don’t need to be a human, Mica. You’re a person just like anyone else. People are different in different ways. Being a homunculus is no different.”

“You’re a human, though,” Mica points out. “Is that really for you to decide?”

“I guess not,” Ryan murmurs. “Sorry.” Mica sighs loudly.

“You’re such a fuckin’ nerd,” she says. “Thanks anyways, though. I don’t really mind being a homunculus that much, you know. I just wish I hadn’t ruined Ray’s life in the process. I think he resents me for it.”

“Maybe,” Ryan says softly. “But I doubt it. I think Ray resents the circumstances more than anything. He probably would tell you this himself eventually but, he seems to feel guilty that he made you angry. Had he known he’d actually make a homunculus, I think he would have wanted to feel differently.” It’s Mica’s turn to frown.

“Really?” she asks.

“You should talk to him yourself,” he insists. “I know Ray doesn’t like to talk but I think he’ll make an exception this time.”

“I will,” Mica promises. “I’m gonna put him in a headlock if he doesn’t.” Ryan sighs loudly.

“For the last time, Lindsay is not a good role model.”

\- x -

Edgar, as usual, has tuckered herself out with all her running around. She gladly has curled herself up for a nap on the couch while Lindsay and Jeremy catch their breathe by the fire. It’s not really that everyone in the house takes turns taking care of Edgar, it’s just that she decides who and when she wants to be around. Being another chimera, she likes being around Jeremy a lot.

Jeremy doesn’t mind at all. She is a good kid and seeing a chimera as young and happy as her makes him feel so much better about himself, honestly. He never wanted to be like this and while he came to accept that he’d never be able to go back, he’s always resented being like this. Edgar makes him think twice about that. Maybe it’s really not so bad being a chimera afterall.

“Hey Jeremy,” Lindsay murmurs. He perks up to look at her attentively. He likes Lindsay, too. In fact, he likes everyone living here. None of them seem to really pay much attention to the fact that he’s a chimera. “I hate to bring this up but I need to know. You and Gavin are from lab two thirteen, aren’t you?”

A jolt goes down Jeremy’s spine just remembering the place. He can smell the blood all over again. Slowly but surely, he’s talked about the lab and what went on inside of it with Ryan but Ryan never pushes him. He takes what Jeremy gives when he wants to and nothing more. It gives Jeremy the sense of control he needs to talk about it at all.

He nods.

“Are you and Gavin the only ones that escaped?” she asks. Jeremy nods again. “Jeremy, what happened there was Michael and my fault.” It’s instinctual, he prepares to lunge at her knowing full well he’d be no match for an alchemist like herself. “We opened all the cells but before we could lead you guys to the escape, we got ambushed by one of the state alchemist there.”

Oh. Jeremy relaxes again. That is very different from it being ‘their fault’.

“That’s not your fault,” he assures. “We all knew what would happen if we left our cells. We stood a better chance together, anyways.”

“If we hadn’t let our guard down, they wouldn’t have all died,” Lindsay insists. “It was a stupid mistake.”

“Yeah, well, we all would have died anyways,” Jeremy murmurs. “At least this way we took the scientists with us and, well, Gavin got out.” Lindsay doesn’t say anything, staring sadly down at her hands. “We put up a fight, Lindsay. There was no way two people were going to get us all out of there anyways. To be honest, I don’t think a lot of them _would_ have gone with you. At the end of the day, we were too far gone. We wanted blood- and we got it.” He still remembers the screaming.

“We could have armed you better,” she says. “Helped you more.”

“Probably,” Jeremy agrees. “But it doesn’t matter. Even if you did, what would we have done differently?”

“Survived,” Lindsay says bitterly. “There were so many chimera in there, Jeremy.”

“Yeah,” he says softly. “I had friends in there, or what you could call friends I guess. We didn’t have much of a choice being locked up together like that. I- it’s better the way things happened.”

“ _No it’s not_ ,” she replies through ground teeth. “People didn’t have to die.”

“If I’m being honest with you Lindsay, I would have preferred it. There’s not a life out here for a chimera let alone so many of them. Edgar’s lucky. _I’m_ lucky. And I hesitate to even say that. We can’t leave here, we can’t let people see us, we can’t even live normal lives. And _I_ don’t want to. For the rest of my life I’m going to look over my shoulder for people in military uniform and every time I find one, I’m going to murder them. I shouldn’t, I know I shouldn’t, I know it isn’t fair but- neither were they.”

“Jeremy,” Lindsay says. “You’re not going to convince me that the best thing that could have happened did. I appreciate it and I’m glad you and Gavin made it out, but you and everyone else there deserved much better and I’m sorry.” Jeremy tears up. He doesn’t really want to by any means but it’s just a thing that’s happening now.

Lindsay doesn’t say anything else but she hugs him softly until he stops sniffling and then they go back to how they were before.

Jeremy will stay here. He has to protect Gavin and Edgar and Ryan. If he’s not doing that then he’s just killing, then he’s just as bad as the people who did this to him.

At least that’s what he tells himself.

“Thanks,” Jeremy murmurs and Lindsay gives him a small smile.

\- x -

Geoff Ramsey aka Thousand Pound Bite Alchemist

Human Sacrifice Eligibility; Yes

Capable of Rehabilitation; Yes

Weaknesses; Alcohol, children, Jack Pattillo, short sighted

Alchemy; Rearrangement of molecular structure ie making something stronger or weaker without altering its appearance.

Notes; Shows great compassion for children, even chimera ones. Pretends to have more of a drinking problem then he actually does in order to hide a surprisingly competent alchemic ability.

 

Jack Pattillo aka Seek and Rescue Alchemist

Human Sacrifice Eligibility; Yes? [to be further determined]

Capable of Rehabilitation; Yes

Weaknesses; Geoff Ramsey, easily discouraged, soul bind mark

Alchemy; Medical. The use of alkahestry allows her a small range making her particularly dangerous.

Notes; Questionable mental state due to artificial memories. Entry will need to be updated as developments occur. Seemingly pro-military however, likely starting to remember her late life and why she abandoned them.

 

Ray Narvaez Jr aka Bloodhound Alchemist

Human Sacrifice Eligibility; Yes

Capable of Rehabilitation; Yes

Weaknesses; unable to perform alchemy without automail, minimized line of vision, self destructive

Alchemy; Metal? Alchemy appears to be used to create a rifle and ammo as will. Not yet witnessed.

Notes; Extremely reserved. Has proven himself very knowledgeable in several different alchemic practices. Capable of near perfect human transmutation.

 

Mica aka experiment M1-C4

Homunculus [non human based, open system]

Capable of Adaptation; Yes

Weaknesses; Philosopher’s stone?

Abilities; Minor shapeshifting, usual homunculi abilities [non human form unknown]

Notes; Based on anger and specifically, anger towards militant scientists. Surprisingly even tempered otherwise. Shows advanced understanding of human interaction and emotion.

 

Jeremy Dooley aka Monster Alchemist

Chimera [Pink Fairy Armadillo, rudimentary class]

Human Sacrifice Eligibility; No

Capable of Rehabilitation; No. Manageable PTSD.

Weaknesses; Small stature, soft underbelly, Homunculus Gavin, Edgar Haywood

Alchemy; Unknown [capable of making philosopher stones]

Notes; Possess great strength that is rarely shown. Incredibly flexible. Hard outer shell is nearly impenetrable and when curled into a ball, he appears to be immune to even explosions. More testing required.

 

Gavin aka Homunculus experiment ‘Free’

Homunculus  [human based, closed system]

Capable of Adaptation; Questionable

Weaknesses; Self devouring stone, cluelessness

Abilities; Grand manipulation of time at an atomic level that rapidly drains his philosopher’s stone, usual homunculi abilities.

Notes; Even when not using his ability, he’s on a limited time frame and his stone must be recharged dependent on the energy he uses. Excessively curious. Shows typical signs of the Ouroboros Effect. Must be watched closely.

 

Lindsay Jones aka the Phoenix

Human Sacrifice Eligibility; No

Status; Active FAKE alchemist. Unknown alignment.

Weaknesses; Excessive water, Michael Jones

Alchemy; Immolation. Appears to be able to render an object fire ‘resistant’, including herself and other organic materials.

Notes; [redacted]

 

Michael Jones aka Mogar

Non Alchemist

Status; Active FAKE member

Weaknesses; Most things, temperament, Lindsay Jones

Fight Style; ??? Mixed?

Notes; [redacted]

 

Ryan twiddles his pen between his fingers idly as he makes notes. The FAKE believe people are intelligent and at their core, good. He believes that too, of course, but he also knows the smart thing to do would be turn him and Edgar over to the military; ‘good’ is relative. No, Ryan doesn’t really believe any of them would do that, surprisingly enough, but he knows better than to assume.

Besides, he’s found it to be a good habit of keeping track of all the people he’s known. It’d been a long time since he’s added anything to this journal. Since before he ran away with Edgar, actually. He knew better than to trust anyone after that. He supposes he’s been lonely, too.

“Ah, papa,” Edgar murmurs as she climbs up onto the roof with him. Ryan grabs her by the back of the shirt to help her up. “Here you are,” she grins at him.

“You should be in bed,” he answers. Edgar huffs softly.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she says. “Mr. Ray says it’s been too quiet.”

“Yeah,” Ryan murmurs. “It has.”

“Does that mean someone’s coming?” Edgar asks wearily.

“Someone’s always coming, baby,” he answers and he softly pets her head.

“We’ll be okay,” she says and she moves over to hug him. Ryan squeezes her fondly.

“Of course. We’ll always be okay,” he promises. “Don’t worry.” 


	9. The Vagabond, The Edgar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Vagabond is dead, but his legacy lives forever.

Ray hears the commotion before he sees it. He sets his book down to peer out the attic window and sure enough, he doesn’t even need his scope to see what’s going on. There’s about three dozen military people outside violently tearing down Ryan’s picket white fence. Well, that’s probably bad. In the middle of them stands out their commander, a state alchemist dressed much differently. This is really bad. Mica peers over his shoulder curiously.

“Ryan!” Ray calls.

“Yeah! I can see them, Ray!” Ryan replies. They’re just surrounding the house is all.

“I don’t think the Hole is gonna cut it,” Ray murmurs.

“Attention Vagabond!” the state alchemist says flatly. “We know you’re in there! Please come out with your hands up for immediate execution! You are hereby charged with treason, first degree murder, second degree murder, third degree murder, destruction of property, multiple grand thefts, a second unrelated treason, the defile of government property, the harboring of known criminals, terrorist activity, assault, assault with a deadly weapon, assault with alchemy, misuse of alchemy, a third charge of treason! That’s only part of my list! You have five minutes to give yourself up before we use deadly force!”

“Can I?” Mica asks. Honestly, she doesn’t think there’s a _bad_ time to murder state alchemists but Ray disagrees. She understands, she supposes, sometimes they don’t want to draw attention to themselves. It’s clearly a little too late in this case.

“Go for it,” Ray says. He obviously agrees. Mica happily hops to her feet and hurries down the stairs just in time to catch Ryan before he leaves the house. They’ve all had their suspicions about him being the Vagabond for a while and they’ve all decided not to really mention it. Ryan left that part of himself behind for a reason. He doesn’t have to give himself up now.

“I got it, Ryan!” Mica promises. Ryan raises a brow at her and she grins. “Don’t worry.”

“Mica-” he begins but she slips outside before he argues with her. It’s been too long since she’s had a chance like this. The state alchemist looks at her from across the yard as she steadily heads for him. At the moment, she’s significantly less interested in the other soldiers.

“A homunculus?” he says. Mica moves quickly and without hesitation, all at once aiming to take him out with a single blow. He makes for an easy target. “I suppose our intel was good after all.”

Mica isn’t sure what to do about this. He’s a human, he’s most certainly a human, and yet he’s stopped her with a single hand. There’s no way a human could match her strength so effortlessly especially one so small. She blinks and he looks back at her, unfazed.

“My unit is equipped with anti-homunculi weaponry,” he says. “You don’t think we’d make weapons we can’t neutralize, do you?” He throws her back towards the house and Mica catches herself easily, her feet digging up grass as she slides back from the force of it. A philosopher’s stone?

“Capture the homunculus by any means necessary,” he instructs. “We can’t have such a waste of a stone.” This isn’t going to be such an easy fight after all. Mica supposes she’s actually quite glad for that. Surely not all state alchemists can be such push overs. Even as the rest of his troop begins advancing on her, she goes straight for the head. The others will scramble without a leader. This time, she doesn’t hold back.

Again, he catches her fist but just barely and he slides back when he tries to keep his footing. Mica hops back before he tries to chuck her again. He’s unamused. Soldiers move in on her quickly and she tosses them aside to keep them out of her way. There’s quite a lot of them, aren’t there? They pose much less of a challenge. Her focus remains on the alchemist, throwing punch after punch and pushing him back a little more each time. If he’s using a philosopher’s stone, it’s only a matter of time before it gives out.

One of the soldiers fixates something to her side suddenly and before Mica can yank it off, a severe pain lurches through her. She shouts. Pain isn’t something she’s used to feeling let alone like this. Her body where the device is firmly planted in her rapidly degenerates only to just as quick regenerate in a violent fight to keep her shape.

“I don’t think you understand what ‘anti-homunculi’ means,” he says. He’s trying to drain the energy in her stone. Mica hops back urgently and scrambles to try to pull it off. It hurts even more to touch it, enough that she’d rather deal with this pain than try to yank it out. Her form warps as more and more energy is depleted and she collapses as she tries to get it off without touching it. It hurts so much.

It makes her angry.

“Mica,” Ray says firmly. Mica orientates herself again, looking up to him as she tiredly pants for breath. He shoots the device off her side, instantly relieving her pain and stopping the vicious cycle of her body trying to maintain itself. That was terrible. “Relax.”

She’s obviously pretty upset about this but allowing her to completely deplete her stone would be a mistake for everyone. This isn’t a situation that calls for that much destruction. Not yet, anyways. They’ll have to see how this goes. Ray rolls his shoulder, adjusting to the weight of his metal arm as he alchemizes his rifle back into a sniper. No wonder it’s been quiet for so long; they’ve been preparing.

“The Bloodhound,” the state alchemist says. “You should certainly be dead. Two birds with one stone, I suppose.”

Ray isn’t interested in chatter. He takes up his sniper rifle immediately and without aiming, fires at their alchemist. Unsurprisingly, he dodges it. This guy isn’t normal, that much is obvious. To stand up to Mica so easily, they’ve done something to him. What that is, even Ray couldn’t guess and he’s seen them work first hand. Instead of pursuing this fruitless endeavor, Ray quickly switches tactics. He aims for the soldiers, eager to thin their ranks before he gets swarmed.

The alchemist is quick to try to put a stop to this, drawing up a solid wall from the ground to protect them. Ray’s bullet goes right through it. He hears the lot of them scramble to reorganize and suddenly the wall explodes into dust, showering the yard in a blinding fog. Fortunately, Ray already doesn’t see too well anymore.

They’re trying to surround him. Ray fires rapidly and accurately at any and every noise their heavy equipment makes. As the dust settles again, blood marks the yard, but few are actually dead. The state alchemist has yet to move from his place, as unfazed as he ever was.

Plants explode out of the injured soldiers, overwhelming their bodies rapidly as the shells of Ray’s bullets disintegrate and the seeds inside grow from blood. Not as many go down as he wanted but thinned is thinned.

Ray’s automail falls off and with it, he drops his sniper rifle.

“That was a cheap shot,” Ray says. It’s never a fair fight with a philosopher’s stone or, in this guy’s case, two. The fine dust easily got between his skin and automail at which point it was much too late for Ray to realise it wasn’t _dirt_ dust. It’s unfortunate the metal makes his skin sweat so much. Soldiers rush at him quickly. If they think he’s an easy target now, they’re in for some bad news.

Michael launches out of the front window, showering them all in broken glass as he lunges at one of the soldiers and takes them down hard with his bare hands. He certainly doesn’t stop there, breaking the soldier’s neck with a sickening crack and hurriedly grabbing his gun to throw at another. The rest of them quickly move back to reform their ranks.

“I had it under control,” Ray says.

“Shut the fuck up,” Michael snaps back. Losing the best ‘edge’ he had doesn’t sound like having anything under control to Michael. Mica moves to Ray’s side to check the acid marks on his shoulder. Michael turns his attention to the state alchemist.

“The FAKE lacky,” he says. “Where’s your bird?”

Michael runs at him and as he does, he gradually catches more and more on fire. The alchemist grabs him by his throat, stopping him dead in his tracks without so much as a blink. Lindsay erupts out of the ground behind him and Michael sees the slight widen of the guy’s eyes. She almost, _almost_ caught him off guard. He latches onto her hands with his free hand, now awkwardly poised between their two burning bodies, and Lindsay instantly latches onto his wrist to set fire to him.

It’s a struggle between them, her flames eating away at his gloves and sleeves but rapidly being suppressed by his own alchemy. Michael takes the free opportunity to punch him hard in the side of the head while he can’t protect himself and he is, momentarily, discombobulated. A ring of burned flesh encompasses his arm and he hurriedly throws Lindsay away from him.

Lindsay isn’t one to be deterred so easily, though. Despite his force, she keeps a firm grip on his arm, causing them both to be tossed sideways. The alchemist drops Michael as the lesser threat to instead put both his hands on Lindsay, immediately burning away his other glove and leaving both philosopher’s embedded on the back of his hands in plain sight.

“Michael!” Mica calls. Michael catches Ray’s rifle automatically and quickly aims it point blank at the alchemist’s head. The bullet grazes him as he moves out of the way. He looks at Michael irritably, obviously beginning to get upset, and once again, throws Lindsay away from him. This time, there’s enough force to dislodge her. She catches herself on her hands and the soldiers immediately swarm on her. The alchemist focuses on Michael.

“You lot are really starting to annoy me,” he says though his tone hasn’t changed at all. Michael tries to move out of the way but he’s much faster and he takes a hold of his throat again. His grip is much tighter this time and Michael can feel the heat from his hands. The cloak of fire Lindsay had shrouded him with extinguishes around him. He can feel his skin melting.

Then he doesn’t.

“Hey! Put him down, please!” Jeremy barks. He drops Michael in a heap and Michael gasps for breath, feeling the burned in handprints around his throat. Those look really in there. Jeremy quickly approaches them to try to get Michael out of there and the alchemist grabs for him. He’s much slower this time, enough to allow Jeremy to throw Michael to safety and get out of his reach before any damage is done.

The state alchemist actually looks perplexed for a moment, looking at his own hand before accurately pinpointing where Gavin is hiding in the house.

“Another homunculus. Was the first lesson not enough?” he says. Jeremy quickly looks around for Lindsay but she’s holding her own fairly well against the other soldiers. The alchemist reaches for him again and again, he’s slowed but significantly less this time. Jeremy hurriedly hops further out of his reach.

“Don’t make me come over there,” he warns. Jeremy isn’t that interested in fighting him, he certainly would not win. He takes a step back as the alchemist steps forward menacingly.

“Don’t touch him,” Lindsay says darkly. He turns back to her as she finishes with another soldier and returns to meet him head on. She reaches for his throat and he’s just slow enough to let her connect. The resulting explosion is barely contained. Jeremy quickly curls himself into a ball and the force of the explosion rolls him back a little. When he uncurls, Lindsay is firmly embedded in the side of the house, hopefully just unconscious and not dead. The alchemist remains unmoved.

“Lindsay!” Michael shouts. Jeremy looks up at the alchemist with concern. This is very, very bad. There’s no way Gavin can hold up long enough to actually see this fight through; his stone will drain long before that. He has to fight. The alchemist grabs for him and this time, Jeremy doesn’t move away. He bites the hand hard, aiming for the glowing red stone on the back of it in hopes of pulling it off. This guy isn’t a homunculus, that’s for sure but without these stones, he’ll be much easier to deal with.

The alchemist aims to hit him with his other hand but it’s slow and Jeremy stiffens himself to withstand the blow in order to try to gnaw the stone off. It is really firmly in there. He’s hit hard in his shell, the blow reverberating through him immensely. In a panic, Jeremy let’s go and pushes away from him. The alchemist looks at the bite marks on his hand with disgust.

“Kill the chimera,” he says. The remaining soldiers move for him quickly and Jeremy curls back into a ball to roll away. They chase him around the yard, their bullets ricocheting off his hard outside wildly but harmlessly. Something stops him before he can finish his alchemy circle. He’s squeezed hard and Jeremy has to uncurl to prevent from breaking his plates under the pressure. The alchemist has snared him in a perfectly shaped hole. Jeremy tries to wriggle free.

“Nice try,” the state alchemist says. “I know what a philosopher’s stone circle looks like.” The rock squeezes him even tighter and Jeremy makes a panicked noise as he tries to get free. It shatters around him.

“Leave the chimera alone, would you?” Geoff scoffs. Jeremy looks up at him, immense thanks in his eyes, before he hurriedly gets out of the way to check on his tired Gavin friend.

“You should really pick on someone your own size,” Jack agrees, cracking her knuckles as she comes to stand side by side with Geoff.

“How many more dead people do you have hiding around here?” the alchemist says flatly.

“Did you really have to make my legs so short,” Geoff complains, stretching out his automail and making the new knee joints complain. Never even broken in.

“Did you have to make me so fat?” Jack replies.

“I like fat,” Geoff huffs.

“I like short,” Jack says.

“Kill them,” the alchemist says. Soldiers rush for them and Geoff pushes them back with a wall of his own, momentarily keeping them at bay. Jack turns to Ray sitting against the house with Lindsay and Michael.

“Give me the stone,” she instructs.

“Don’t,” Michael says firmly. “Those are people’s lives, Jack. You can’t use them like this.” Geoff understands the sentiment but now really isn’t the time. Without that stone, they’re not going to have a chance. Fortunately, Ray obviously understands that. He pops his eye out and puts it in Jack’s awaiting hand.

“Jack,” Michael barks but she ignores him, pulling one of her own eyes out to pop Ray’s philosopher filled one in. It doesn’t fit right, doesn’t match, but it’ll do the job. Geoff moves back to her side again.

“Have you really not understood, yet?” the alchemist asks. “You’re no match for me.”

“Oh, we know,” Geoff assures.

“We’re just distracting you so the Vagabond can escape,” Jack promises with a grin. The alchemist sneers, emotion breaking through his unperturbed mask more and more. Geoff moves towards him as Jack takes out some of the soldiers with ease. Any of them daring to get in her range drop dead and from them, Jack draws what she needs; iron. The alchemist refuses to move and Geoff clashes with him hard. Lindsay has already proved this doesn’t work well but he doesn’t have much else.

They lock hands, Geoff’s alchemy tattoos fighting hard with the state alchemist’s circleless alchemy. He doesn’t know much about philosopher stones but he knows they can break and if they can break, he can make it fragile enough to break. Jack works around him, doing what she can to help combat the alchemy being used against him while simultaneously trying to get a decent shot at one of his stones. Geoff tries to break his stones and he tries to break Geoff, going directly to trying to break down his organs. They don’t have long, Ray’s philosopher’s stone is weak and Jack will eat it’s power away quickly at this rate.

The alchemist breaks their hold, forcing Geoff back hard. Geoff digs his feet in but he refuses to be pushed back. Again, he locks hands with the alchemist defiantly. It’s a unanimous agreement, if it means protecting Ryan and Edgar, they’re ready to die here. It’s not like any of them have much to fight for anymore, anyways. Mica’s already preparing to step in again when Geoff and Jack inevitably fail knowing full well not enough time has passed to properly recharge her own stone. Ray is trying to get the melted metal of his arm to fit back onto his stub and Michael tends to Lindsay’s wounds.

They’ll go down swinging and they’re going to leave a goddamn crater in their wake.

Again, the alchemist pushes him away and again, Geoff refuses to go far. This is exhausting. Even with Jack rapidly fixing whatever this guy breaks, Geoff’s body is paying the price for it. This would be easier if Geoff’s knew what the structure of a philosopher’s stone was in the first place but he guesses there’s no better time to learn than the present. He feels so close.

“Geoff,” Jack says firmly. He’s not ready yet. He hasn’t done it yet. “ _Geoff_.” The state alchemist pushes him back and this time, Geoff stumbles. The moment he’s out of the way, Jack pierces the alchemist through a dozen times over with the massive iron needles she’s made. Neither of his stones break. In fact, he’s not deterred at all regardless of his new pin cushion appearance.

“I am  _tired_ of playing games!” the alchemist roars and needles go flying in every direction. Geoff shields his face with his arms but none of them hit him. A stone wall has risen to protect them. He looks to Jack but her eye is broken and she is much too far away to have pulled this off without it.

“That’s enough,” Ryan says as the wall falls again.

“Vagabond,” the state alchemist says. “Now you decide to show your face.”

“You were supposed to run, idiot!” Michael shouts at him. Ryan doesn’t pay him much mind, walking out to stand between Geoff and the alchemist with Edgar in his arms. She clings to him tightly, nervously gnawing on her own floppy ear. What the hell is he doing?

“Ryan,” Jack barks at him. “You need to go.”

Ryan isn’t going anywhere. What soldiers remain quickly encircle him and pull their guns up to aim. Jack steps back out of the way and Jeremy quickly pulls Geoff out from under foot.

“Put the child down, Vagabond,” the alchemist instructs. Ryan puts Edgar down and gently nudges her towards Jack but she refuses to go. She clings to Ryan’s leg tightly.

“Don’t do this, Ryan,” Geoff says.

“Very well,” the alchemist says. “Fire at will.” There’s no hesitation.

\- x -

“Ah, you must be the new scientist! It’s a pleasure to meet another alchemist so invested in the pursuit of scientific advancement like myself. Your research was incredible!”

“Thank you. I worked hard on it. I have to say, it was quite the adventure getting in here. Are you always so protected.”

“Oh, so sorry about that. We’ve been having problems lately with some, let’s say, troublemakers. It’s nothing you need to worry about! This is the military’s most secure facility! No one comes in or out without us knowing about it!”

“The most secure? That seems a little arrogant. What kind of ‘troublemakers’ are you trying to keep out exactly?”

“Well, you’ve heard of the FAKE, right? That silly little rebel gang of murderers?”

“I know of them, sure.”

“Well, we have reason to believe they have philosopher stones and one of them, in particular a very dangerous one, has been going around targeting research facilities. But again, I can guarantee you, no one will be getting into here.”

“I’m not sure I believe that, really. You understand.”

“First and foremost, we have no underground networking! We’re sat on a solid slab of what we like to call ‘alchemy poison’. There’s not enough compounds in it for _any_ alchemist to do anything with it! Even if they do have a philosopher’s stone, there’s so much of it, they’ll most likely deplete it trying! Our entire building is made out of the same thing!”

“Primitive but ingenious I suppose.”

“Then we’re surrounded by no less than three layers of security! Someone would have to make it past our soldiers, our state alchemists, _and_ our various chimera. We have assured there isn’t a _single_ blind spot on our premises. No one’s sneaking by anyone!”

“Excessive labor fixes most problems, sure.”

“If they even manage to make it inside, which they won’t, then they’ll have to deal with the security system! We have state of the art equipment constantly making checks to count how many people are in the building, how many are leaving and entering, and if they’re supposed to be here. If anything is even slightly off, the whole place gets locked down.”

“Entrap people with a murderer, lovely.”

“No one can enter any room in this facility with these cards. An intruder would be trapped in a room with no way to alchemize out! We might lose a few people trapped with them but that’s a small price to pay. These badges can not be replicated! Each one is encoded with a unique code that is backed up by a blood sample that’s back up with each person’s own personalized identification password and even then, each time the badge is used, the system stores that information and pings that data to assure the correct person is using it!”

“State of the art indeed.”

“So you have absolutely nothing to worry about! We’re all perfectly safe in here to continue working on our research as we’d like. You have no idea how excited we all are to be working with someone so knowledgeable about human transmutation like yourself!”

“The pleasure’s all mine. Scientific research should be the top most priority.”

“I’m so glad you feel the same way. Please, follow me. I’ll show you to your work station, Dr. Haywood.”

\- x -

A series of explosions trigger down the circle as their guns backfire in individual shrapnel bursts. The soldiers are quick to drop their weapons, some of them now severely injured and others just plain dead. Not many of them remain now. The state alchemist sighs. Surely he expected this.

“I have had a very long day,” he says as he takes off his burned coat and rolls his sleeves up. “I’d like to get this over with quickly, please.” Ryan would never give him that pleasure. Edgar lets go of his leg so he can advance forward, meeting the alchemist head on much like his friends before him. He and the alchemist collide hands hard and a small explosive forms between them.

“You couldn’t even bring a new trick?” he says.

His philosopher’s stone shatters.

There’s a moment of stunned silence across the yard as the stone pressed into the back of the alchemist’s hand breaks apart and evaporates into the air. No one knows what to say. Ryan laughs.

“That’s going to be a bit of a problem, isn’t it?” he says and he grins as the alchemist looks at him in horror. “What’s wrong? I thought you came prepared?” Ryan moves to strike him again and this time, the alchemist urgently moves out of the way to avoid it, abandoning the post he’s held so long. Ryan follows him.

“Where are you going?” he questions. “You wanted the Vagabond, didn’t you?”

“Don’t just stand around!” the alchemist yells. “Kill him!” The soldiers, now without their guns, visibly fret about what they should do about this. There’s not nearly enough of them to matter to Ryan. He allows the man to get some distance from him in order to deal with some of the soldiers first. They come at him quick but unarmed and, unsurprisingly, become very confused when they can’t find his ‘weak’ spot.

“Looking for a philosopher’s stone?” he questions amusedly. “Or perhaps you think I’m a homunculus? What did your ‘intel’ tell you?” Ryan grabs one of them by the face, rocking a hole in the back of their skull with ease. The rest urgently get out of his reach. He turns back to the state alchemist and the state alchemist moves back again. There’s a split moment where the guy seems to remember Edgar exists and then he’s running for her. He’s almost as quick as a homunculus; perhaps his lesser speed now attributed to his loss of a philosopher’s stone.

“Edgar!” Jack yelps. The alchemist is surprised when Edgar easily dodges his attempt to grab her. He tries again and again but she is not having it. Irritated, Edgar headbutts him hard in the stomach and knocks him back far enough for her to run to hide among the others. The lot of them quickly move to protect her, injured or otherwise.

“You don’t want to involve her in this,” Ryan assures as he approaches the alchemist again and the soldiers move with him like orbitals. The alchemist glares at him before righting himself again, straightening his stance and fixing his clothing to the degree that he can.

“I’m glad you’ve exceeded the expectation of your record,” he says. “I was worried there for a moment.”

“Don’t worry, I just thought of a new game,” Ryan assures. “Let’s see if I can figure out what you are before I kill you.” He reaches for the alchemist again but this time, the man has wised up enough to not let Ryan touch him. Ryan isn’t as quick as he is but a chase is always fun.

“The military could use alchemists like you. If you come quietly, we’ll leave your little friends alone,” he tempts.

“You’re not a homunculus, that would be too easy. A chimera then,” Ryan says and the alchemist jolts. “I’ve heard of chimera like you. The ‘perfect’ ones. Essentially animals in human skin; all of the good with none of the blending issues.”

“How- could you tell?” the alchemist asks but he tries not to waver too much.

“The same way you can tell a homunculus apart,” Ryan assures.

“And what now?” the alchemist questions rather sharply. “Get me to join you? Want me to be saved? Free me from my ‘pampered’ military life?”

“No,” Ryan says. “Perhaps the Vagabond would have tried to take you in and help you, perhaps not. I’m not the Vagabond. I’m Ryan Haywood. I’m a bio alchemist and I’m the father of little Edgar Haywood over there. _I_ don’t really care if you’re a chimera or a homunculus or a human, a state alchemist or FAKE or even just a civilian, honestly. You threaten my daughter’s pursuit of happiness and I’m going to kill you.” The alchemist swallows nervously.

“We know you’re the Vagabond,” he insists.

“If you want to live, you’ll run,” Ryan replies. “Like I said, the Vagabond is dead. I’m much worse.” The chimera backs even further away. Perhaps he really will run. Instead, he quickly reaches for the ground and a sudden flare shoots into the sky. Ryan looks up at it blandly before looking back to the state alchemist.

“The more the merry,” he says. “Now then, back to what you are. A chimera with two philosopher stones. I noticed something while you fought my companions, you don’t use your own alchemy, do you? Do you even know alchemy?" Now it’s just a game of keep away. Ryan’s fine with that. They try to avoid him as best they can without actively looking like they’re running but it only does so much good. He has no hopes of catching the chimera at the moment, it’s much too quick, but he deals with the remaining soldiers as he catches them; swift and merciless.

“You understand why that doesn’t work on me, right?” Ryan muses curiously. “Why you can’t mirror my amplified alchemy back on me?”

“Keep talking,” the alchemist urges. “The military is sending in more state alchemists as we speak.”

“Good on them,” Ryan answers. “You didn’t answer my question. The military didn’t prepare you properly, did they? What _did_ that intel say about me? Obviously you were expecting something different.”

“We know more than you’d expect, Vagabond,” the alchemist promises. It’s just the two of them now, stood on his blood soaked lawn as the chimera urgently tries to stay out of Ryan’s reach. If Ryan catches a hold of him, he’s done for. It’s not the two of them for long. The military is quick when they want something and Ryan has no doubt he is at the top of their holiday list.

“A single squad of state alchemist?” Ryan murmurs as they move in to surround his home. Six highly trained alchemist and a chimera with a philosopher’s stone isn’t nearly enough to take him in- let alone down.

“We have to help him,” Mica says.

“Don’t,” Ray replies immediately. “Mica. I’m not even joking, there were two things I was afraid of being in the military; running into the Vagabond and running into the Vagabond with my team. He has this under control.”

“They always told us to run,” Geoff murmurs. “No matter where we were or who we were with or _how_ many we were with, we were supposed to run if we ever saw the Vagabond. Some didn’t, of course. If we ever saw them again it was never- all of them.”

“There’s a reason they never caught him,” Jack assures. Ryan rolls his neck.

“What high expectations,” he says. “Let’s get this over with.” The chimera that had led this assault is swift to get out of the way; the other alchemists aren’t. Unlike the soldiers, they’re well equipped and clearly ready for this fight. Fortunately, so is Ryan. He is only one, though, and they are many. It’s hard to keep up with all of them at once.

Ryan withstands the first couple blows, pulling up half hearted defenses to block the obvious and slow ones. It’s an intention game on their part and it certainly isn’t a bad one. A hard slab of rock finally knocks him to the ground with enough force to rip the grass up underneath him and other alchemist jumps to the offensive, delivering a powerful, and actually quite painful, electric shock while he’s down. Irritating. He hears Jeremy make a concerned noise.

Brushing himself off a bit, Ryan gets back to his feet, no worse for the wear. The alchemists step back nervously.

“Fight back,” Ryan insists, picking up a piece of the broken rock in his hand. “Or don’t. Honestly, I could care less.” He alchemizes the stone in a second, just long enough for him to wind back to throw it with deadly accuracy. Not that it matters much when the resulting blast covers nearly half of the yard; just enough not to hurt his housemates behind him. The alchemists quickly reform and then they’re teeth to teeth again.

They’re being much more careful this time, trying avidly to avoid Ryan’s grip at an cost. It makes them sloppy. He catches one of them by the arm and before they can even yank free, Ryan’s blasted it off. Another is quick to retaliate, attaching something to his back while he’s busy. The explosion from it engulfs him swiftly. Ryan shakes it off.

“The military? Learning things?” he says in amusement. “I’m impressed.”

“What- what are you?” one of the alchemists finally asks. Ryan grins.

“Human, same as- well, most of you,” he assures. “Edgar?” Edgar perks up immediately. “What’s the law of conservation?”

“Oh! Energy can never be created or destroyed!” she says. “Only moved around! Energy flows from being concentrated to being spread out!”

“Very good,” Ryan praises her and she beams happily. “And if we know the law, then what?”

“We can manipulate it!” Edgar yips cheerfully.

“Correct,” Ryan says again and he grins. “Energy can be moved and with alchemy, changed. Knowing that-” He rolls his shoulders and the burned in alchemy circle on his back glows. “Anything is possible.”

\- x -

“I’m home,” Ryan murmurs as he carries the paper bag full of goods into his home. It’s awfully quiet in here. He peers around curiously, setting the groceries on the counter before searching for his husband. Of course, the man is where he usually is in their little research nook.

“Oh, Ryan,” he says with a smile. “You’re home.” Ryan looks over what he’s doing

“Yeah. What are you- doing?” he asks.

“I’ve made an amazing discovery,” the man says fondly. He uncovers the lump he holds to show Ryan the chimera there. It’s so small. Ryan freezes. “An intelligent chimera. That research was actually quite viable.”

“Edgar?” Ryan says softly. His baby. That’s his baby. The child makes a small whimper before crying out softly. It hurts so much.

“Yeah, that’s papa isn’t it? Say hello papa,” he encourages. Edgar cries louder. “It’s alright darling, I got you.” Ryan reaches out with shaky hands and his husband passes little Edgar to him. She whimpers in pain, making little moo like noises as she struggles to get comfortable. Her little eyes are off set now and she has long, fluffy ears- like a cow. His baby is a cow.

More importantly, his baby is in pain.

“Lovely, isn’t she?” his husband asks.

“Yeah,” Ryan says softly and he carefully bundles her back up. He rocks her against his chest gently, trying to soothe her. “You’re okay, baby. I got you.”

“Experiment successful, I’d say,” his husband says with a grin. “We should get another one in you asap. Hopefully a boy this time. I’d like to try this again very soon. I think I can get rid of the animal features with some adjusting.”

Ryan reaches for his husband fondly, moving to hug him. Edgar cries louder as they get close, obviously aware enough to understand who has caused her so much pain. His husband kisses him affectionately and Ryan pets his head.

“I’ll see you in hell,” Ryan murmurs. He doesn’t think about it, doesn’t hesitate; he doesn’t have to. He knocks a hole in his husband’s head, splattering blood and brain all over the wall behind him.

Edgar sniffles.

“I got you, baby,” Ryan says softly as he gently pets her head. “I won’t let anyone hurt you. It’s okay.”

Ryan burns his house down.

\- x -

Ryan laughs. They finally got him pinned down which, honestly, seems incredible at this point. Out of the seven alchemist that had come, only four of them are still alive. Out of those four, only one of them still has all their limbs. They all have grievous injuries, urgently having to try to patch themselves up as best they can before another comes. Whether it’s from Ryan’s own hand or from his created explosions, they’re covered in burns and shrapnel wounds and blood.

They look like they’ve been through hell.

Ryan looks like he was in a minor scuffle.

No matter what they do or how much they throw at him, none of it seems to affect Ryan. Again and again they knock him down but he just gets back to his feet, brushes himself off, and makes them regret it. They’re tired and Ryan’s just getting started.

For the moment, they have him pinned to the ground with alchemized steel cables, preventing him from getting a grip on anything to alchemize for himself and holding him in place while they catch their breath. Geoff isn’t sure what to do. He’s not sure Ryan actually needs help after everything that he’s seen. Ryan is something completely different than them.

The alchemist all look at one another, obviously none of them wanting to approach Ryan even bound. This is a wise decision. Of course, they don’t really have a choice, either. Ryan isn’t going to be killed by someone else’s alchemy, he’s made that much clear. They decide to approach him together and Geoff gets ready to intervene. He feels a strange sensation wash over him and judging by the way the others react, they feel it to. Jack looks at him wearily. The state alchemist don’t move.

“That was fun,” Ryan says and he grins. “But it’s getting late. Edgar, come help papa up, please. I’m very tired.” Edgar perks up at once. Without hesitation, she darts out to her father’s side before anyone can stop her, easily weaving between the alchemists’ legs. Still, none of them even budge. They look horrified. Hurriedly, Edgar helps Ryan get free and he sits up again, rubbing his wrists in his hands. He gets to his feet and hoists Edgar up into his arms again.

What happened? Why aren’t they attacking him anymore?

“The military didn’t prepare you for this,” Ryan says. “You don’t really think they expected you to come back did you?” None of them speak. “I’m a bio alchemist remember? I’ve fused all your bones together.” Geoff all too quickly remember when Jack was building. She kept running into pipe very shallowly buried. Ryan built this house and he built it on an alchemy circle, didn’t he? A final defense. No, Geoff wouldn’t say that; Ryan has too many backup plans for that to be the case.

Ryan turns to look at them and Geoff is fairly sure he’s not the only one that jolts.

“You need to listen, too,” he says. “The reason I can do this is because I can store alchemic energy almost indefinitely. Energy can never be created or destroyed but it can be moved and changed. Everything we perceive is made out of primarily empty space; we only see what the atoms make up at our own scale. I am not made of empty space. This is the same concept philosopher stones use. I’m much, much stronger than any philosopher’s stone in existence albeit it, I come with more limitations being only a human body.” Ryan turns back to the alchemist.

“The Vagabond is dead. He died when he accepted the truth; the world isn’t ready for change. If the military was wise, they’d leave well enough alone. Maybe, hopefully, by the time Edgar is an adult, the world will be ready. If not, she’ll be ready for it.” Ryan smiles at her and Edgar happily smiles back.

“Now then, why don’t you show these guys your special alchemy?” he says. “What are you, Edgar?”

“I’m the truth,” Edgar replies eagerly. “I’m alchemy! Ah, what should I show them?”

“Do you remember the circle Mr. Jeremy uses to help Mr. Gavin?” Ryan asks.

“The one for philosopher stones?” she questions.

“That’s the one,” he agrees. Edgar nods firmly. Ryan walks back towards the house to join the others and as he does, vines begin to sprout at an alarming pace. They weave together behind him, forming an alchemy circle under the feet of the frozen alchemist. She can do alchemy without a circle? How could she possibly?

“Jeremy,” Ryan says and he gestures his head to the newly formed circle. Jeremy hops up swiftly, moving to handle it from here. Geoff instinctively doesn’t look. “Very good, Edgar. Your alchemy is improving very quickly.” No one knows what to say, obviously, if they really want to say anything at all. Jeremy hurries back over with his new philosopher’s stone, immediately attaching to Gavin’s side to mash it back into him.

“Well,” Ryan speaks again. “I guess it’s time to move, Edgar.” A panicked expression crosses Edgar’s face immediately.

“Yeah,” Geoff murmurs. “Pretty sure the military is going to know where we are now. We should pack up quick.” Edgar looks perplexed now and so does Ryan.

“Oh good, I can build a house somewhere else now,” Jack hums softly.

“Fuck that, how are we going to move all of Ryan’s research?” Ray scoffs. “That shit’s gotta weigh a ton.”

“I can carry half a ton,” Mica assures.

“I can carry the other half!” Gavin chirps.

“I hear the west coast has a town where chimera just live,” Lindsay says. “Not sure how they’re gonna feel about, you know, ex-assholes here but worth checking out I think.”

“Could always become a chimera,” Michael offers.

“Don’t joke about that!” Jeremy yips immediately.

“You’re- coming with?” Edgar asks unsurely. “All of you?”

“Of course, sweetie,” Jack smiles at her. “We gotta stick together.”

“You’re not getting rid of us that easily,” Geoff agrees. “Your pops may be smart with alchemy, but he’s a fucking moron about a lot of other things. We can’t just leave ‘im and you alone now can we?”

“Plus, we love you kid. Seriously,” Ray murmurs. Edgar tears up a little. She looks back at her father, realises he’s also tearing up, and quickly tries to stop crying by rubbing her eyes with her hands. Ryan laughs softly.

“It’s okay,” he says and he hugs her tightly. “Let’s go get our stuff together, okay?” Edgar nods. “We can decide where we’re going when we get there.”

Even tumbleweeds have roots.


End file.
